


Watchmen vs Dinosaurs

by old_fashioned_gal



Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crack, Crack Crossover, Crimebusters AU, Gen, violence against dinosaurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-18 07:43:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 23,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4697897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/old_fashioned_gal/pseuds/old_fashioned_gal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my first attempt at fan fiction. So naturally I went for a Jurassic park/Watchmen crossover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of this.

“So I guess we just gotta sit back and hope nothing bad happens ’till your boyfriend gets back from North Korea.”  
Laurie froze with her coffee halfway to her lips. “What the hell?”  
The Comedian shrugged. “What?”  
“Why would you say something like? You’ve just totally tempted fate! Now something terrible’s gonna happen!”  
“Aw, come on! There’s no way any daughter of Sal’s is superstitious!”  
“God, when will people stop comparing me to my mother? I can be superstitious if I want!”  
“Well I guess but it don’t look fun!”  
Laurie rolled her eyes. “Not with you around.”  
Ozymandias glanced up from the HQ switchboard. “Could the two of you try not arguing for five minutes?”   
“I will if Eddie stops tempting fate!”  
The Comedian snorted. “You can’t seriously believe in fate, kiddo.”  
“You can’t live with Jon and not believe in fate!”  
“What kinda argument is that? You can’t let other people give you beliefs! Oz, back me up here!”  
“I’m not getting involved.” Adrian let his gaze wander from the silent switchboard and picked up a newspaper, opening it at the puzzles page.   
“Eddie, can we just drop it?”  
“Hell no! Not if that big blue jackass is telling you what to think!”  
“He doesn’t tell me what to think.” Laurie shifted her chair pointedly away from the Comedian, who shrugged and put his feet on the table before disappearing behind a magazine.   
Adrian allowed himself to relax a little as he put the page of solved puzzles down. It was always hard to tell when arguments between Eddie and Laurie were going to need a referee. They were just too similar to avoid getting on each other’s nerves at times. It was also hard to tell whether the two of them arguing was less scary than the two of them as a united front. The switchboard was still silent and the room was still tense. He couldn’t help smiling when Dan walked in with a plate of sandwiches, altering the mood just by showing up cheerful. “Hi guys” Dan put his plate on the table, paused, gave the Comedian a disapproving look, and shifted it away from the man’s boots. “Anything happening?”  
“No” Adrian gestured to the idle switchboard. “All quiet so far.”  
“I vote we go out and have some fun” The Comedian finally took his boots off the table. “Let Oz stay here and – oh, hey Inky.”  
“Comedian.” Rorschach nodded his greeting and sat down, helping himself to one of Dan’s sandwiches. The Comedian lit a cigar. “Inky, me and Dan were just saying since it’s all quiet here, we oughta go to a strip club”  
“Enk!”  
“Buddy, I wasn’t saying that!”   
“Could you guys just grow up?” said Laurie. “No-one’s going to a strip club. Aside from how sleazy that is, we have work to do.”  
The Comedian shrugged. “Not right now we don’t. Anyway, we could call it a working lunch.”  
“Comedian. I don’t like to disagree with you but I support Miss Juspeczyk in this matter.”  
“As do I” Adrian glanced over his shoulder. “I am not in favour of being left here alone while you all – oh!” The switchboard lit up with flashing lights, multiple calls fighting to be taken.   
Everyone got to their feet, Rorschach secreting another of Dan’s sandwiches into his pocket for later. They listened as Adrian shared an urgent exchange with the first caller.   
“Hello, you’ve reached the Crimebusters’ helpline, how can…I see…please, try to calm yourself and tell me …yes …but…Jurassic Park? The new place on that island?...and the police have been…Ah…you’ve reached safety yourself? ...good…sit tight; we’ll get over there.” Adrian switched to the next caller, producing a very similar one sided conversation. Meanwhile more callers were trying to get through, dozens of them. The Crimebusters glanced at each other grimly. This number of calls only ever meant hostage situation or gang shootout.   
After the third call Adrian stepped away from the switchboard and said “All the calls were about the same thing. Everyone’s been too shaken to give me more than the bare facts but it seems that there’s some sort of security breach at the zoo section of a new theme park.”  
Dan blinked in surprise. “People breaking into a zoo? Are they after rare animals?”  
“No, I mean a security breach in the other direction. Bubastis!” Adrian checked that the lynx was heeling before heading out the room, trailed by the others.   
“Err, Adrian?” Dan reached for his console belt to open Archie. “What do you mean in the other direction?”  
“I mean” replied Adrian, as everyone boarded Archie, “No-one is breaking into the zoo. The animals are breaking out and there’s a group of children on a school trip trapped on a viewing platform who missed the evacuation.”  
There was a silence while everyone processed this. It was broken by the Comedian. “Hell. I bet you all wish we’d gone to the strip club now!”


	2. chapter 2

As Archie picked up speed, Adrian used the onboard communications panel to hold another worrying one way conversation with someone on the ground at the theme park. Dan piloted Archie across the city and beyond, spiriting them across the coast until the only view in any direction was the grey and rolling Atlantic. 

“What the hell kind of theme park is this anyway?” asked Laurie “Who’d come all the way out here just for a few rides and a zoo?”  
“Rich folk” the Comedian shrugged. “I heard it’s got a five star hotel and some kinda new technology that they ain’t sharing. There’s a few who are pretty pissed about it.” He nodded meaningfully towards Adrian.   
“Well” said Dan, “whatever it is it’s generating a lot of heat. Look” He pointed out the outside temperature monitor on Archie’s control panel. It was reading well above normal for the time of year and climbing.   
“Wasteful” growled Rorschach. “Not enough for the wealthy to go on decadent foreign vacations instead of facing winter like the rest of us. Do they have to meddle with nature and disrupt the natural climate as well?”  
Dan nodded. “It does seem pretty indulgent, doesn’t it?”  
“I don’t know” Laurie relaxed very slightly in her skimpy costume as the temperature continued to climb, “I’d think about going to a close-to-home tropical getaway if they’d just keep their damn animals under control. What did they say Adrian? Adrian? You okay?”  
Ozymandias had ended communications with the theme park and was looking a little shaken. “Well it seems that a system of force fields that usually keep the more dangerous animals separated from the guests has failed. In addition to the children at the viewing platform there are also three members of staff trapped in a bunker near the hotel.”  
“Bunker?” The Comedian frowned. “Hell of a weird thing to have at a theme park.”  
“Indeed. They are safe for the time being but are surrounded by a group of – of – err – animals. They’ve contacted the military but haven’t been successful in convincing them of the urgency of the situation and indeed, we are now flying over international waters, so well out of NYPD’s jurisdiction as well. Not that this is really a police matter…”  
“What?” Laurie waved her hand in an eloquent what-the-fuck gesture. “Are these guys trying to establish a new country or something? Who opens a theme park in international water?”  
Adrian put a hand to his forehead. “Actually I, along with several others have expressed my concern about this venture. The truth is, the technology being used wouldn’t pass the safety standards required by the US government.”  
Dan frowned, angling Archie to descend. “What technology is that?”  
“I only have the vaguest idea. They’re very secretive about it.” Adrian noted Dan’s insistent expression and elaborated, “Genetic engineering. I don’t know exactly which processes they’ve been using but they’ve poached some of my company’s top scientists, so one thing I do know is that the standard of the work will be flawless.”  
“Genetic engineering?” repeated Laurie. “At a theme park?”  
“So they’ve been messing with nature” snarled Rorschach “for frivolous entertainment and exposing children to genetically altered horrors because of their arrogant carelessness”  
“Yes, well” Adrian ran a defensive hand through Bubastis’s fur “much as I sympathise with your view, Rorschach, I feel bound to remind you this is a rescue mission.”  
Rorschach shrugged. “Agreed. We rescue the children and leave the instigators of the danger to face the consequences of their actions.”   
“Not gonna happen, buddy” Dan steered Archie towards the island that had suddenly appeared beneath them. “Here we are. Wow, it’s big! Do we have any idea where the children are?”  
Adrian shook his head and explained “There are twenty six viewing platforms scattered around the park and the children didn’t know which one they were on when they managed to call for help before the phone lines went down. One little girl tried to help the adults work it out by describing the – err – animals she could see but given that the animals were all loose and roaming by then it didn’t narrow it down.”

There was a worried silence before Laurie asked the question no-one really wanted an answer to. “What kind of animals are we talking about Adrian?”  
Ozymandias looked uncharacteristically lost. Gripping Bubastis’s fur he said “Di–” He got no further. Suddenly Dan gave startled cry, almost exactly the same moment that something heavy collided with Archie’s windscreen, spinning the craft around. “Everyone grab hold of something!” Dan yelled.  
They plummeted.


	3. chapter 3

Dan opened his eyes to grass brushing his hair. Archie’s windows were all smashed. What the hell had Archie hit? Or, he thought, remembering, what had hit Archie? Something big. And…scaly? No. That couldn’t be right. He moved cautiously into a seated position. “Is everyone alright? Rorschach?”   
The Comedian’s drawl was the first response. “’M okay but my lighter sure as hell ain – oh shit! Laurie? Laurel Jane? Oh sh –”  
“Eddie, relax, I’m right here!”  
“Oh thank G – err – fuck. Thank fuck.”   
“Bubu?” Adrian sat up from the wreckage of the passenger seat and stared in horror at the ownerless purple fur in his fist.   
There was an angry hiss from the far wall of the craft and Bubastis staggered to her feet, revealing a slightly crumpled looking Rorschach. Dan let out the breath he’d been holding. Rorschach issued his own growl and dusted himself off. “Alright Daniel?”  
“Yeah, buddy, I’m fine. Archie isn’t though.”  
“Hurm. Could be a problem. What hit us?”   
“I’m not sure” Dan tried to sound casual or at least as casual as he could be in the circumstances. It would hardly be reassuring for the others if the pilot freaked out. “Some sort of bird or…something.” It was hard to stay calm when Archie was such a mess. There was a faint smell of smoke and anything not pinned down had scattered everywhere. The pilot seat had tipped sideways and hung crazily. That was going to take a lot of welding. Just to add to the chaos Bubastis had apparently shed her winter coat in the stress of the moment and purple hair was stuck to the floor by stinking lighter fluid from the smasher lighter. “We should get out of here” he added.

Dan crawled through the broken windscreen, brushing the glass away for the others to climb out into glaring sunshine. He stood and surveyed the wreck of his airship. The others watched him cautiously, sensing that this could be one of the moments that they were reminded just how deep Dan’s passions ran under the genial surface but he stayed professional, only flinching a few times before he said, “Okay. The good news is he’s more or less the right way up and the control panel looks intact.”  
The Comedian placed a cigar between his lips and then seemed to remember that his lighter was broken. “And the bad news?”  
“The side’s concave and the engine’s bust.”  
“Yep. Thought that’d be it.”  
Laurie sighed and looked from the jungle like surroundings on one side to the vast field on the other. “Can you fix it?”  
Dan made a helpless sound. “There’s a safety feature that puts him in lockdown when he’s badly damaged. I’ll have to make some adjustments to the programming to override that, and I can repair the engine at least enough to get us home, but it’ll take a few hours.”  
Adrian nodded. “Well that’s unfortunate but it can’t be helped. One of us will have to stay here to guard Dan while he works and the rest of us look for this viewing platform.”  
“Sure” Laurie nodded. “Do we know where on the island we are Dan?”  
“Near the north east coast. I don’t think the – err – whatever it was –knocked us too badly off course.”  
Adrian nodded. “Good. Well, Rorschach, you stay here with Dan and Bubastis, everyone else let’s head south west to the valley where the majority of the viewing platforms are.”  
“I don’t see why Daniel and I need to mind your cat, Veidt. Shouldn’t you be using her to track the children?”  
“She wouldn’t be able to pick out their scent among all the other visitors’ and I’d really rather she stay here.”  
Rorschach glanced around. “The place seems too big to be crowded even when full and hasn’t been open long. The children’s scent is probably easily apparent to the cat.”  
Adrian looked for the briefest of moments like he wanted to punch Rorschach but it passed before anyone noticed. He sighed. “Yes, I suppose that is a point. She can come. Is everyone’s radio working?”  
There were murmurs of assent. Adrian turned to the Comedian. “Eddie, how many guns do you have on you?”   
“Three. Why – how many are we gonna need for a bunch of pandas?”   
“There are no pandas, Eddie. The animals here are genetically engineered”   
“Purple pandas then”  
Adrian shook his head. “Dan, are the flame throwers still working?”   
“Not until I override the lock down they’re not, but are we really going to need them?”  
“Yeah” Laurie studied Adrian, suddenly on edge. “What sort of animals are we dealing with here? They’re not all going to be like Bubastis but wild are they?”  
“No”  
“Good. So what are they?”  
“They’re di –” Adrian was cut off by Rorschach, who suddenly tensed, gasped and pointed. “Apatosauruses!” he exclaimed in the same tone of voice a child would use to say that the circus had come to town.   
“– nosaurs.” finished Adrian.   
Laurie raised her eyebrows and turned very slowly to look where Rorschach was pointing “Fuck”. Behind her, the unlit cigar dropped from the Comedian’s open mouth. Dan managed to stop staring long enough to grab Rorschach by the shoulder before he could step towards the massive creatures.   
For a moment they all stared at the long necked beasts striding across the field, looking for all the world like chunks of a mountain that had decided to pick themselves up and move. Faint vibrations ran along the ground with each ponderous footstep.   
Then Dan shook himself. “Guys? Hate to be a killjoy but – trapped kids?”  
“Yes” Adrian tore his eyes from the dinosaurs and looked at the Comedian again. “Eddie, which guns do you have?”  
The Comedian opened and closed his mouth a few times before managing “Uh. Wait. Did we die in that crash?”  
“We sure went to a weird afterlife if we did” replied Laurie “and I like to think if I’m a good girl, I’ll go somewhere different to Rorschach.”  
Adrian answered, “Eddie, focus! Show me your weapons.”  
The Comedian handed over two handguns before detaching a bazooka from the back of his costume. “I got a machete too” he said “but I dunno how much good it’ll be on those things.”  
“Not necessary to hurt those ones” Rorschach told him. “Herbivores”  
The others blinked as the Comedian laid out his weapons. It was easy to forget just how well armed the man was even when he was just hanging around HQ. Laurie rolled her eyes at the bazooka. “God, we are so lucky that didn’t go off during the crash!”  
“I think it did” said Dan grimly, eyeing a dent in Archie’s ceiling. Only Rorschach was watching the dinosaurs now. Adrian handed Dan a handgun. “Here. Fix Archie and keep us updated. We’ll find the children, then head to the bunker.”  
Dan nodded. “Sure. Good luck Adrian.”  
“You too, Dan. I think we’ll all need it.”


	4. chapter 4

Small lizard like creatures scattered ahead of the oncoming whoosh and slash of someone beating their way through the undergrowth with a blade. Hacking his way through the jungle in this way, the Comedian commented, “This reminds me of ‘Nam. Everyone always wanted to walk behind me.”  
“Maybe they wanted you where they could see you” said Laurie, following. She swore as her heel caught on a root.  
“Actually” said Adrian, stepping daintily over the same root, “I rather think bulldozing through thick vegetation is something of a calling for Eddie.”  
“I still don’t – oh damn these heels! – I still don’t see why we couldn’t have gone through the field those apatal – apoto – those whatevers were in.”  
“If my navigation skills serve we’re bearing southwest more accurately on this path. Besides while the – err – apatoses? – are herbivores, the same doesn’t necessarily go for other creatures here. It’s best we stay under cover.”  
Laurie looked horrified. “They wouldn’t be that stupid would they? They can’t have made carnivores!”  
Adrian shrugged. “The entire venture is irresponsible enough that I wouldn’t put it past them. After all, until the main generator went down this morning, the creatures were separate from visitors so they might well have reasoned it was safe to have some predators.”  
“Well yeah but. Well. They wouldn’t, would they? No-one’s that stupid!”  
“I really don’t know what lines they’ve crossed, Laurie.”  
The Comedian glanced back at them and said, “Seems to me Oz, you don’t really know anything about this place except it’s stolen your scientists.”  
“Well in my defence, they’ve been very secretive for a theme park. Almost all the publicity’s been through the rumour mill and I didn’t realise they were capable of anything near the feats being claimed.”  
Laurie shuddered. “Let’s just find those kids and get out of here.”  
“Don’t worry kid. Nothing’s gonna eat you while I’m here.”  
“Don’t patronise me, Eddie. Oh damn these heels! There!” Laurie bent down and yanked her shoes off her feet. “Wearing them on the streets is one thing but this?” She tossed them into a bush. “Don’t tell my mom.”  
“Laurie, if you get injured –”  
“Adrian, I’d get injured if I kept them on and I don’t want to slow us down. Anyway a splinter is the least of our worries. What was that?”  
They all froze. Bubastis’ ears were vertical and twitching. The Comedian shouldered the bazooka before stepping carefully forward. After a few quiet steps he let out a laugh. “Hell, there’s nothing here. We’re just – ahhh!”  
His scream was echoed by Laurie and Adrian as they watched him catapult backwards through the air. “Eddie!”  
The Comedian hit the ground with a thud and crawled backwards until he crashed into a tree, his eyes on the massive head that had appeared through the leaves. The others ran to him, away from the monster. “Eddie? Are you hurt?”  
“Eddie, the bazooka, use the bazooka!”  
In the second it took the Comedian to reach for his weapon, the creature backed off. They stared after it. “What was that?” Laurie asked.  
Adrian shook his head, helping the Comedian to his feet. “I don’t know. Did you see the horns?”  
“We don’t need to know what it is” the Comedian declared, “we just need to know it’s gone and good riddance.” He spat on the dirt at his feet. “Damn overgrown lizard! What the hell do you think you’re doing kid?”  
Laurie, halfway to the patch of undergrowth the dinosaur had disappeared into, looked back. “Well this is the fastest way to the viewing platforms isn’t it?”  
“Yeah but only if you want to get impaled on the way. Get back here!”  
“Actually” Adrian started walking, “It did back off. Maybe we just startled it. I say we proceed carefully and reroute only if it attacks again.”  
“We’ll be dead if it attacks again!”  
“You’re alive aren’t you?”  
“No thanks to that thing. Damn it!” The Comedian snarled. “I guess we’re taking our chances with a different monster if we go a different way. Go on, Oz, you first.”  
But Laurie was already pushing through the tropical leaves and out of sight. Before either of the men could call out to her they heard her breathe out a single, stunned word. “Oh” Then she called to them, “Hey you guys need to see this!”

They joined her in a clearing that bristled with low crooning noises and stomping feet. It seemed remarkable that they hadn’t heard it sooner. All the dinosaurs here were three horned and bluish grey with parrot like beaks that clipped leaves from the trees and nuzzled the pig sized babies at the centre of their circle.   
The three heroes found the path they’d been following and headed along it, watching the dinosaurs that occasionally watched back, but seemed reassured now that they weren’t a threat. It occurred to the Comedian that the jarring impact he’d received had been a mere warning nudge and he began to think he’d dismissed superstition too quickly because they could sure as hell use Dr Manhattan right about now. And damn if the kid wasn’t actually smiling at the monsters like it was all a joke! She reminded him of himself as a youngster. Beside him, Bubastis lowered her furry head and slipped into a predatory stalk which Adrian hastily altered with a hand stroked along her spine.   
As they finally slipped out of sight, they began to breathe easily again. “Next dinosaur I see” muttered the Comedian “I shoot it.”  
“Not if they’re like that you’re not” Laurie replied. “Those things were kind of awesome.”

…… 

Dan crawled out of Archie with a tool box and opened up a panel on the airship’s side. He pulled the cowl off in the heat and settled down to work, stealing glances at Rorschach.   
His partner was officially keeping lookout and unofficially gazing at the dinosaurs in the distance. Every so often he muttered a name and Dan would look up to see a new type of dinosaur in the grassland beyond them. Finally, Dan had to comment with “So, dinosaurs huh?”  
“What Daniel?”  
“You. You’re geeking out about them.”  
“Don’t even know what that means.”  
“It means you’re acting around these dinosaurs like I do around birds.”  
“No.”  
“No?”  
“No. Just…they are dinosaurs, Daniel! Unusual to see them walking around. You can’t tell me you’re not interested too.”  
“Hey, I’m interested; I’m just surprised you’re interested. And that you seem to know all their names.”  
“Not all. Everyone knows the names of some dinosaurs.”  
Dan shrugged, reaching into Archie’s belly. “Off the top of my head all I can think of is Tyrannosaurus Rex. I knew more as a boy.”  
“Would think you’d know a lot about them. Ancestors of birds after all.”  
“Yeah, I did go to a few lectures about that at college, but it was all very dry stuff. I was more interested in living animals.”  
Rorschach gestured over to the massive beasts in question. “Living now.”  
Dan smiled, hearing the boyish grin in Rorschach’s voice. He wished he could think of an excuse to get Rorschach to push up the mask so he could see it. Rorschach seemed to sense his curiosity because he grew suddenly defensive. “I’m not “geeking out”, Daniel.”  
“Okay buddy”  
“I don’t know all their names.”  
“I’m not criticising. It’s nice to have an interest.”  
“You’re crediting me with knowledge I don’t have.”  
“You did recognise that apotosaurus when no-one else did.”  
“Apatosaurus” muttered Rorschach. 

Dan grinned and turned his attention back to Archie. After a while he sensed a presence at his shoulder and asked “Could you pass me the wrench, buddy?”  
When no wrench appeared he turned around. “Rorschach? Oh! Hello there” He scratched the snout of the dog-sized, spine covered lump that had ambled up to nose through his tool kit.   
“Daniel? Something wrong?”  
Dan shifted so that Rorschach could see the little dinosaur that had snuck up round the back of the ship. “Rorschach, please tell me there isn’t a bigger version of this looking for this little guy.”  
“Hurm. Probably is the case, Daniel.”  
“Ah”  
“Stegosaurus.” Rorschach came over to examine it. He put a hand out to touch it and then withdrew it, extended his hand again without the glove to stroke it tentatively along the dinosaur’s side. The dinosaur slumped into his touch like a tired puppy. “It’s a herbivore if that puts you at ease.”  
“Yeah that helps” said Dan “But how big will his mom be?”  
“Approximately thirty foot by twelve foot.”  
“Wow you really know your stuff!”  
“Not really. She’s right behind you, Daniel.”  
Daniel let out a very unmanly noise and spun around to face an enormous creature with dinner plate sized spines protruding from her tree trunk thick neck. A surprisingly small head nudged him none too gently a few times before he had the presence of mind to push the baby towards her. It tottered to its mother and then rebounded, shambling past them with four siblings in tow. The mother sniffed Archie’s exposed engine. Dan hastily tried to push her away. “No, no, there’s nothing for you in there! Hey, get your nose out off there!”   
The stegosaurus nudged him, blowing and snorting against his scalp before issuing an annoyed sound. Rorschach made a noise that Dan realised had to be laughter. “She thinks you use too much product in your hair, Daniel.”  
Dan chuckled, scratching the dinosaur’s immense side. She blinked at him passively, completely unperturbed by human contact. He was reminded of dodos, of how they were doomed by their lack of fear. “Does she indeed? Maybe now she’s made that clear, she could back off and let me – no!” He and Rorschach ducked as a spiked tail swung playfully over their heads. “Hey, now, that’s enough! Shoo! Look, your babies are over there!” After a few more ineffectual attempts to get the ship sized animal to get away from his ship, Dan raised his hands in frustration. “Rorschach, do you think there’s anything that’ll scare her off? Rorschach?”  
His partner had moved off and was plucking leaves from a nearby tree. Returning he waved them under the stegosaurus’s nose. She swivelled her reptilian head and took a bite, chomping loudly. Rorschach started to walk slowly backwards, leading her away from Archie and toward her young. Dan swore and braced himself against the airship as it rocked under another swish of the armoured tail. Rorschach seemed completely unperturbed. 

When the stegosaurus was well away from Archie, Dan shifted to face the engine again and carried on working, aware all the time of his partner’s antics.  
Rorschach was stroking the stegosaurus as she fed, murmuring to her. The babies mingled around his feet. At one point, Rorschach said “Not that” and Dan looked up to see him fishing a piece of glass from the broken window out a baby’s mouth. Deprived of its meal the baby whined and tried to find another piece, only to catch sight of its tail and follow it in a slow circle. Dan laughed. “Not the brightest of creatures, are they?”  
“This species have the smallest brain for their body size of any creature in existence.”  
Dan couldn’t resist replying, “Does that include the Comedian?” but he said it too quietly for Rorschach the fanboy to hear.   
He focused on the engine, trying to ignore the shuffling, snuffling sounds to the side. “Remember Rorschach, you do have to keep watch as well. I’m going to be taken up with this.”  
“I know that, Daniel” Without any warning or preamble, Rorschach put one foot between the mother stegosaurus’s neck plates and pulled himself on to her back in one fluid motion. After an indignant squawk, she went back to eating. Dan gaped. “What are you doing?”  
Rorschach, balanced on the dinosaur’s back, actually shrugged. “I can see much further from up here.”


	5. chapter 5

Gradually, the jungle became sparser and the ground steeper, dropping into a valley populated with small lizards that darted around on their hind legs and eyed them speculatively. “Laurie?” The Comedian dropped beside her now that his bulk wasn’t needed for bulldozing, “You got a lighter?”  
She gestured to her costume. “Where’d I keep it?”  
The Comedian gave this some thought and winded up looking faintly horrified. He kicked a shrubby tuft of ground and said, petulantly, “I need a smoke.”  
“Well so do I but I don’t have a lighter. I need to make some adjustments to my costume.”  
Adrian shot them both a disapproving look. “Or you could quit smoking.”  
Laurie ignored him. “Yeah, definitely some costume adjustments needed. Oh look – that one has feathers!”  
Adrian smiled at the gangly, feathery creature that had scattered the lizards. It hissed at them. “A crucial link in the evolutionary chain I assume.” Adrian said. “Dan will be sorry to have missed it. Come on, I think we’re near the viewing platforms now.”  
As they moved on they heard a hiss followed by a wet snap. They spun around.  
Bubastis worked her jaws around the wings protruding from her mouth with a satisfied mewl. “Ugh!” Adrian put his hands on his hips. “That will ruin her dinner!”   
“Whatever, Adrian. Oh great, these creeps are back.” Laurie stepped carefully around the pack of bobbing lizards. “If any of these things try nipping my toes I’ll – there! Look!”  
The other two looked where she was pointing, spotting the viewing platform protruding from the side of the valley ahead of them. They all picked up speed. The little lizards seemed excited by this and tailed them, chattering and bobbing. “Does anyone see the kids?” Laurie called, racing ahead in her bare feet.  
“Naw, I think there’s – there – staircase!” 

They tore up the steps that zigzagged up the sloping cliff face, leaving the lizards yipping in the valley. Laurie reached the top with a groan – through the thick glass windows, it was obvious no-one was in there. “Damn!” She smacked a fist against the glass and took a moment to calm herself down. “Only twenty five more to go, I guess.”  
Adrian pushed the door open. “Let’s see if we can spot the rest from up here.”  
They piled inside. Adrian and the Comedian took in the view of the vast valley below them while Laurie found an emergency phone at the back of the room next to an electronic lock. “At least we know we can run in here if we have to” She nodded to the lock before trying the phone. “Phones are still down. You know, it would have been really useful if they could have put one of those you-are-here type maps up somewhere in here. Anything?”  
“There’s another viewing platform across the valley” Adrian picked up a set of binoculars from its case built into the window sill and looked through them before shaking his head “but I can’t tell if the children are in there.”  
“Can you see any clothes hanging out the windows? Writing on the windows? Anything they’d do to attract attention?”  
“No. But we should still check it out.”  
“Screw that!” The Comedian gestured out the window on the other side of the room. “What if they’re in that other one way over on this side of the valley? We’d waste at least an hour crossing over and back again!”  
Laurie nodded. “Looks like we’ll have to split then.”  
Adrian nodded. “Eddie, are you okay to go alone along this side of the valley? Laurie and I will cross over and check the viewing platforms on the other side.”   
“Gotcha. I’ll take the bazooka. Sure you can manage the other gun, Oz?”  
Laurie took the handgun before Adrian could reply. “We’ll manage. Let’s go.”

……

 

After a while, the stegosauruses ambled off, the mother’s impressive size becoming less obvious as they moved further and further away. As they made their way across the field they hit a patch of long grass that swallowed up the babies. Rorschach watched them go, following the shambling progress of their mother long after the babies were hidden.  
“That was pretty neat” said Dan, reaching into Archie.  
Rorschach just nodded. In the distance there was a brief commotion as the stegosauruses crossed paths with something equally big, prompting a few bellows and bashing before the two groups of dinosaurs moved apart again.

It suddenly occurred to Dan that back in the day, those animals were the prey. The idea that there was ever a creature big enough to take those massive animals down was chilling. But then again, recreating the herbivores was one thing. No-one would be reckless enough to bring back the meat eaters. Would they?

Dan jumped as the radio buzzed. “Dan?” Laurie’s voice wavered in the static.  
Dan snatched it up on handed, his other hand still in Archie’s entrails. “Hi Laurie.”  
Dan nodded as Laurie told him the plan, remembered she couldn’t see him, blushed and reassured himself that she couldn’t see that either. When she’d finished he said “Got it. Good luck, Laurie.”  
“You too, Dan. Are the two of you okay?”  
“Oh we’ve had a few visitors but they’ve all been herbivores. But then they all must be, right? No-one would bring back the other kind.”  
“You’d think but Adrian’s not so sure. I’ll see you later, Dan.”  
“Sure, Laurie, bye.” Dan set the radio aside with a frown. He glanced up to see Rorschach approaching. “Daniel? Any sign of the children?”  
“None yet.” Dan filled Rorschach in on what the others were doing. Rorschach nodded. “Splitting up is probably a good idea.”  
“Yeah, especially if Adrian is right about – RORSCHACH, LOOK OUT!”   
Rorschach spun around and leapt backwards, barely avoiding the snapping jaws of the huge monster that had jumped from the undergrowth. 

It was huge. That was about the only thing Dan was able to process for a second. Huge and reptilian, with long, reaching arms and a mouth full of teeth that were all too like a shark’s. Trembling, he reached for the gun. Rorschach scrambled away from the dinosaur bearing down on him and Dan’s fear spiralled into hysteria when he saw Rorschach punch the damn thing, a forceful smack that the dinosaur didn’t notice. Rorschach ducked behind the far side of Archie as the massive jaws snapped again. Dan fired the gun. The creature moved just as the gun went off and the bullet hit the tree behind it. The dinosaur crashed into the side of the airship, making it lurch alarmingly and Dan swore, leaping away from his ship before it could crush him. The dinosaur seemed to notice him for the first time and changed course, running at him. Dan fell on his back, firing again, his hand jerking up to send the shot wide when Rorschach jumped into the line of fire, grabbing the dinosaur’s front claw and – as the big mouth swooped down – somehow swinging himself on to the dinosaur’s head. Dan heard himself yell, “Rorschach what the hell are you doing?!” just as a red gash opened on the dinosaur’s throat. The dinosaur roared and staggered, it’s enormous legs trembling as the roar became a gargle. Rorschach jumped clear as it toppled. Archie vibrated at the crash. 

Dan let out a long breath. “Oh my God!” he squeaked. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”  
“Enk. Blasphemy, Daniel.” Rorschach slipped a jagged, bloodstained object back into his pocket. Distantly, Dan recognised the glass he’d confiscated earlier.   
Dan let out a stuttering giggle. “Blas - ? Oh you - ! Oh my God!”  
“You alright, Daniel?”  
“Am I - ? Are you alright? God, Rorschach, you just played rodeo with a fucking T-rex and you ask if I’m alright?”  
“I’m fine, Daniel. Calm down. The need to work on Archie is particularly acute now we know there are carnivores here.”  
“Yes. God yes. Okay.” Dan pulled himself to his knees and crawled over to his ship.   
“Not a tyrannosaurus rex anyway” said Rorschach behind him.  
“Good”  
“Not big enough”   
“…” managed Dan. And then, “I really wish you hadn’t said that.”


	6. chapter 6

“Are you sure Eddie will be alright on his own?” Laurie put a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. “I don’t like that all those lizard things followed him.”  
“He’ll be fine, Laurie” Adrian replied, “I don’t think Eddie will be bested by anything that small.”  
“There were a lot of them.”  
“There’s a lot of Eddie.”  
“Hey, did you notice how freaked out he was about the crash until he realised I was safe? Weird or what? I really need to ask mom about him.”  
“Well perhaps – oh. This could be a problem.” Adrian stepped neatly to the side and into the undergrowth, Laurie and Bubastis following his lead so that the three of them were soon hidden from the sight of the pack of creatures wallowing in the river that sliced through the valley.

“Do you know what type those are?” whispered Laurie.  
Adrian shook his head. “Not a clue I’m afraid.”  
“Adrian, you’re meant to be the smartest guy on Earth!”  
“Well to that end” Adrian flushed defensively, “I have focused my learning on the living.”  
“Um. Alexander the Great? The Ancient Egyptians?”  
Adrian made an exasperated sound. “All still alive in the sense that their influence is still felt, Laurie! They still have an impact on civilisation!”  
“Uh huh. As opposed to those completely extinct dinosaurs happily having a swim over there?”  
“Well I didn’t know someone would bring them back! The real question is, are they carnivorous?”   
Laurie watched the dinosaurs. They were big and there was a lot of them. If they were carnivorous, she and Adrian were in big trouble. It was hard to tell what they were doing from where they were but she wasn’t about to get any closer. But they did need to cross that river. “Well hell if I know.” She frowned, and reached for her radio. “Let’s ask Dan. He’s bound to know.”

She pressed the communication button down and spoke into the little case in her hand, her voice cutting through the static. “Dan? Dan, are you there?”  
The static intensified into a squeak for a second and a few of the dinosaurs in the river glanced up. Laurie and Adrian tensed up but after a few curious stares the animals went back to whatever it was they were doing.   
Dan’s voice buzzed into focus. “Laurie, can you hear me?”  
Laurie relaxed. “Loud and clear Dan. Listen, do you know anything about dinosaurs? We need to get across a river and there’s a herd of them blocking us.”  
“I barely know more than the average preschooler but I think Rorschach can help you.”  
“Seriously?”  
“Yeah he’s pretty much an expert”  
In the background Laurie could hear Rorschach muttering “Not an expert, Daniel”. She rolled her eyes. “Tell him to stop being so goddamn modest and put him on.” There was a rustle as the radio was handed over at the other end. “Miss Juspeczyk?”  
“Rorschach we’re by a river and it’s full of these massive dinosaurs in a big herd. I need you to tell me if they’re going to want to eat us.”  
“On all fours?”  
“Um…no. They’re mostly bending down in the water but they look like they walk on their hind legs – oh wait” Laurie watched three of the creatures haul themselves out of the water and walk leisurely along the bank. “Make that a bit of both.”  
“Hurm. In the water?”  
“Yeah.”   
“Distinguishing features? Crest at the back of their heads?”  
“You mean like a blunt horn thing sticking out the back of their skulls? Yeah.”  
“Parasaurolophus.”  
“Bless you.”  
“It’s the name of the dinosaur, Silk Spectre.”  
“Yeah, yeah, I know! So will they eat us?”  
“No. Herbivores.”  
“Great – so we can just go past?”  
“Yes. I suggest you approach cautiously and try not to startle them.”  
“Thanks, but I don’t need a dinosaur expert to tell me that. You guys take care.” Laurie switched the radio off and turned to Adrian. “We’re not allowed to startle them, apparently, or Rorschach will throw a hissy fit.”  
“I wasn’t planning on startling anything bigger than myself in any case. I suppose we just walk past them.”

Just like with the three horned dinosaurs, this turned out to be very straight forward. With the quiet innocence of creatures unexposed to the human race, these new dinosaurs simply glanced up briefly as they approached before going on with their day. As they reached the river bank, Laurie realised that they were dipping their long snouts into the water to eat reeds. They were close enough to touch them and when Laurie couldn’t resist putting a hand out to stroke a thick hide, its owner simply let out a weird burbling sound before returning to its meal. She grinned. 

Adrian stepped into the brownish water, an expression of distaste on his face. “You should probably keep the gun out of the water, Laurie”   
Laurie waded into the river. “I know how to look after a gun, Adrian.”  
“Good because I don’t.”  
“Something else you don’t know? Man, I’m going to have a lot to tell the others when this is over!”   
Adrian looked extremely annoyed but said nothing until he saw Bubastis still lingering on the bank. “Come on, Bubastis.”   
Bubastis gave him a you have to be joking look. Adrian tried again. “Please, Bubu. It’s only a little bit of water.”   
Bubastis pointedly stepped away from the water’s edge. Laurie sighed, raising her arms as the water reached waist length. “If she’s not going to cross, she’ll have to go back to Dan and Rorschach.”  
“She can’t go on her own, there are dinosaurs around! Come on, girl, please.”

Bubastis looked like she was considering for a moment, staring hard at Adrian who was up to his thighs in the water. Then without warning, she leapt. 

For a moment, Laurie thought the cat was actually trying to jump over the river and she braced herself for the shrieking splash that was bound to come when she failed. But Bubastis’s intention became clear when she landed on one of the dinosaurs. The dinosaur let out a gurgling howl and swished its great body in the water, sending a wave over the two masks. Soon all the dinosaurs were wailing and clambering out of Bubastis’s path as she sprang from back to back before neatly stepping off the last dinosaur and on to the far side of the bank. She was completely dry.   
“Well” said Adrian, wiping a wet lock of hair from his forehead, “that’s one way of doing it.”


	7. chapter 7

Dan replaced the panel on Archie’s side and began screwing it in place. “I think the engine’s as fixed as it’s getting today.”   
“Good. Then we’ll be up in the air soon?”  
“Not until I’ve overridden the lockdown and rebooted the control panel.”  
Rorschach grumbled at that. Dan finished covering the engine, no easy job given the dents, just as Rorschach’s muttering finished with a small, inarticulate sound. Frowning, Dan identified it as the same sound his partner had made when the Underboss had pointed a machine gun at Nite Owl’s head. “Rorschach?” he asked, not daring to look up.  
“Daniel, have you finished with Archie’s exterior?”  
“Yes”  
“Good. Move very slowly to the window and go inside.”  
“Rorschach, what is it?” Dan still didn’t dare move for fear of provoking whatever it was that had joined them.   
“Raptor…s”  
“Um” Dan felt his mouth go dry. “This would be ‘raptor’ as in the precursors of birds of prey would it? As in, very sharp claws and predatory instincts?”  
“The same”   
“Uh.”  
“Daniel? Move.”  
“Okay” Dan shifted sideways on his knees, trying to make himself as small as possible as he crawled to the bust open window at the front of his airship. As he rounded the ship he sensed more than one heavy set creature standing near by, apparently puzzled into inaction by the sudden arrival of man. Not for long, surely. “Rorschach?” Dan reached the window and finally lifted his head enough to see the corner of his partner’s trench coat, just a little out of reach. Rorschach was staring the damn things down. “Rorschach, get in here!”  
“Trying Daniel” And that was when Dan got really scared because if Rorschach wanted to retreat the opponent had to be fearsome indeed. Rorschach elaborated through gritted teeth. “Not sure it won’t attack if I move.”  
“Okay” Dan very slowly pushed off from the ground and stood up, fear mounting by the second. He turned to face the raptors.

They were bigger than he’d expected. There were four of them, all towering over Rorschach who stood statue still. Their front claws were comically little but they more than made up for it with the great daggers protruding from their ankles. And they were feathery. Dan had to swallow a hysterical giggle. There were feathers along the entire length of their spines and across their long, thick tails. One, apparently a juvenile, was almost fluffy. It was far from cute though. 

Dan took one slow, decisive step from Archie and reached for Rorschach, every movement slow and deliberate. The raptors followed the sweep of his arm with beady eyes. Dan’s hand closed on Rorschach’s wrist.   
Suddenly whip-quick, Dan pulled Rorschach back and swung him towards the ship, getting between him and the raptors. The raptors let out a chilling, high pitched squeal and lunged forward.  
Dan bundled Rorschach through the broken window and climbed in after him, yelping as a clamp like jaw encased his costume. He wriggled and broke free, Rorschach hauling him upright and wedging the bar from the rack of Dan’s costumes into the gaping window frame. Big jaws snapped hungrily on the other side of it.

“Daniel? Daniel!”  
“I’m okay!” gasped Dan before he even confirmed it. He ran a hand around the costume, finding no punctures. “I’m good.”  
“Sure?”  
“Yeah. Thank God for Kevlar, right?”  
Rorschach nodded fervently. “Utahraptors” he said, looking around for anything else to block off the empty window frame with. Dan wasn’t sure if the uncertainty in his voice was over identification of the creatures outside or feeling overpowered by them. He hoped it was the later or they were in new territory. He tried, “Yeah? Not those, err, velociraptor things?”  
“I don’t think so. Too big”  
“Ah.” Dan finally let himself vent a burst of hysterical laughter. “Feathers!”  
“Yes. Most raptors probably had them.”   
“Really? I must have missed that lecture.” Dan helped Rorschach tip the snapped off pilot seat against the clothes rack. The raptors growled and circled outside.  
Rorschach added, “It’s never been confirmed. Obviously.”  
“Yeah? Well I guess we’ve learnt something then.” Dan stepped away from the patched together barrier as the creatures inserted their long noses into every gap they could reach, probbing and shoving, seeking entry. They were almost methodical about it and he realised with a shudder that they were intelligent as well as hungry. “Rorschach?”  
“Yes, Daniel?”  
“They’re going to kill us aren’t they?”  
“Yes, Daniel. Probably.”

 

……

 

Elsewhere, the Comedian trudged none too quietly through the undergrowth along the edge of the valley. There didn’t seem much point trying to be quiet since the flock of little upright lizards that were following him seemed to have called dibs. 

They were fast as hell but tiny, with twig thin little legs he’d be able to snap. They scuttled around and behind him, dozens of them, bobbing their heads constantly and flowing over obstacles that he had to take his time to tackle. It was a bit unnerving and to counter that he addressed them with the occasional throwaway remark such as, “If you’re fans, I’ll pass on being mobbed” and “Any of you kids got a lighter?” 

He could see the next viewing platform clearly now but it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. The heat was relentless. He stopped to wipe his face with an arm – and screamed when he realised there was a puny little dinosaur attached to it, digging in. “Fuck!” He swung his arm, trying to shake it off. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Another little bastard jumped on to his leg, biting his goddamn knee, and then a third made it up to his neck, tucking in with a mouthful of little razors.   
Then they were all going for him, biting and chewing, hundreds of little mouths. “Fuck!” He dropped to his knees and rolled around, feeling the satisfying crunch of tiny bones against the ground beneath him. He jumped up again and plucked the more determined critters from his skin, pulling chunks of flesh away with them. He hurled them to the ground and stamped on the ones that didn’t move out the way fast enough. “Fuck that! Let’s nip that in the bud right now!” He paused and grinned. “Get it? Nip? Hell, Inky would laugh.”  
The dinosaurs didn’t appreciate his sense of humour. They leapt for him again. He reeled back, decorated with lizards hanging from their claws and mouths. “Fuck! Fuck you all!” He resorted to firing the bazooka. It dented the ground, sent some weird creatures startling out the trees and briefly scattered the lizards. It didn’t take them long to regroup and fly at him a third time. He repeated the pantomime of rolling, crushing, plucking, throwing and crushing. “Fuck! Damn it! Right that’s it!” He threw yet another little lizard and stamped on it as it hit the ground. It was replaced by two more. “Let’s make one thing very clear – if anything’s gonna eat me, it’ll be bigger than you little bastards!”   
There was a roar behind him. The lizards fled. The Comedian turned around. “Yeah” he managed. “Yeah, that’ll about do it.”

It was a T-Rex. He was standing next to a goddamn T-Rex. “Hey there” he managed, as he carefully aimed and reloaded the bazooka. “You got a lighter?”   
The beast stepped closer, a sort of hideous elegance in its movement as it lowered its head. Even bent over it towered above him, and he felt the air around him cool as it cast him into shadow. It roared again and this time the Comedian could feel the heat on its breath. It smelt of meat and leather and bloody death. He shifted the weapon on to his shoulder. “No lighter? You sure? Aw that’s a shame” The Comedian fired his weapon.   
The T-Rex was knocked back but not over by the impact of the rocket. It roared angrily. Smoke escaped the hole in its side and blood hit the ground like someone had emptied a bucket. The dinosaur swayed, and seeing that was no less alarming than seeing a building sway. The Comedian jumped back to escape its shadow but that wasn’t easy, with the shadow swinging across the ground, the dinosaur still upright and undecided as to where it was going to topple. He stared up at the beast. How was it still on its feet? It staggered dizzily, another, harsher roar escaping its throat. He raised the bazooka again but didn’t fire – he didn’t want to waste ammo when there could be more of these monsters around.   
Finally the T-Rex fell. It fell towards him in chilling slow motion and for a second he stood there stupidly, staring up as the open jaws descended. The damn thing was still trying to gobble him up, even as it died. At the last second, survival instinct kicked in and he dived out of the way.   
There was a colossal crash. The earth shook and the Comedian hugged the ground with his hands over his head like he would in an earthquake. He was sure the vibrations made the goddamn trees sway. 

Silence. He stood up and checked himself over. No real damage and the bazooka was safe too. The radio wasn’t. He scooped up a few cogs and screws and dropped them again. Then he patted the felled giant feeling pretty damn pleased with himself. He wished someone had been around to see that.   
He noticed his machete lying near the dinosaur’s side and picked it up. He was about to walk off when an idea occurred to him. Hell, he deserved a souvenir and Laurel Jane needed new shoes.


	8. chapter 8

“What are they doing now?” Dan finally prised the cover from the control panel and lifted it to reveal a tangle of wires. It didn’t look promising. He’d thought at least the controls were undamaged but now he was looking inside, things were looking disrupted at best.  
Peering out the barricade of random stuff they’d stashed in the window frame, Rorschach replied “They seem to be alternating between pacing and eating the dead carnivore.”  
“Any chance they’ll leave us alone when they’re done?”  
“Not sure. We don’t make much of a meal but they can probably smell the others as well. Might think there are more of us in here.”  
Dan glanced out at the feathered beasts prowling outside. “Right. Looks like I’ll have to work fast then.” He studied Archie’s internal workings for a moment and sighed: Overriding the lockdown would have to wait until the damage to the controls was fixed. It was definitely worse than he’d thought. He started reconnecting tugged-out wires and replacing delicate parts from the collection of spares he kept onboard. Rorschach watched the Utahraptors, glancing over every now and then. After a while, Dan put his tools down with a sigh. “Shit.”  
“Language, Daniel.”  
“Sorry but I think it’s called for in this case! We’re surrounded by hungry dinosaurs and trapped in a broken airship that I don’t think I can fix for hours yet!”  
Rorschach studied him for a moment, the inkblots shifting across his hidden face. “I don’t see why you’re stopping then.”  
Dan picked up his tools again and tried to focus on the repairs but he could suddenly hear the raptors even clearer. It seemed they’d abandoned the picked clean corpse and were all at the door now. “I mean it, man. This will take hours.”  
“Understood, Daniel.”  
“How long will it take them to get in?”  
Before Rorschach could answer, one of the dinosaurs did it for him, crashing into the hole where the glass of Archie’s window had been. The barricade of miscellaneous items shook violently and Rorschach scrambled to block off the gaps that appeared, unceremoniously shoving the dinosaur’s snout back outside. “Possibly won’t take them long” he conceded. “Could we turn the flame throwers on?”  
“No” replied Dan. His hands were sweating now, which wasn’t helping him work. He pulled his cowl up to cool off but put his goggles back on. He couldn’t see to perform this small scale work otherwise.  
Rorschach asked, “Screechers?”  
“We can’t turn anything on until I fix the controls and override the lock down.”  
“Hrm. The lockdown’s not looking like such a good idea after all.”  
“Well I didn’t know we were going to be attacked by dinosaurs! I just wanted to stop the Top Knots using him as a weapon if we ever crashed!”  
“Good point. Sorry Daniel.”  
“Me too. I shouldn’t have snapped.”  
“No. Enough of that already with Utahraptors around.”  
“Heh, yeah…damn it.”  
“Daniel?”  
“It’s okay, I got it, I – look out!”  
Rorschach sprang away from the barricade as it crumbled under another assault. He slashed at the protruding dinosaur with his blade of glass and forced the heavy pilot chair into the gap again.   
Dan tried to ignore the inconceivable reality of what was waiting beyond the (suddenly thin-seeming) walls of the ship and focus on getting them off the ground. He tried to ignore how long it would take.

An hour crawled past. Dan worked with wet, shaking hands and labouring lungs as the attacks came again and again, Rorschach forcing sometimes one and sometimes two of the creatures into retreat and repairing the barricade each time. The barricade seemed to be unfit for purpose judging by the number of times the Utahraptors almost got in, but at least it kept them coming in manageable numbers. Dan didn’t want to think about what would happen if more than two burst in at once or if just one managed to get all the way inside to use it’s claws as well as it’s snapping shark-teeth. But it was obviously only a matter of time before he found out.   
Finally there was silence. “Are they gone?” Dan asked hopefully.  
“No. Just pacing again.”  
“Ah” Dan studied Rorschach for a moment. His partner seemed remarkably calm given the circumstances but maybe that wasn’t surprising. This was Rorschach after all. “This must be weird for you. Kind of like me being killed by birds.”  
Rorschach seemed to consider this. “Death by dinosaurs wasn’t how I expected to go. Preferable to gangsters though.”  
“True. Probably quicker.” Then again, thought Dan, at least gangsters wouldn’t eat them. And would being eaten really be quicker if the diners had to get through Kevlar first? Should he take it off? Or was there a chance it would hold up long enough for him to somehow fend them off by hand? A terrified giggle escaped his lips. Rorschach looked at him sharply. “Focus, Daniel”  
“Sorry, sorry” Dan flexed his fists to dislodge the tremor and picked up the tweezers needed for this delicate work. Another tiny silver cog was carefully put in place.   
With the dinosaurs quiet for now, he could almost trick himself into believing he was working in his basement. Or at least working in his basement with the AC broken. Rorschach meanwhile straightened his scarf and ran gloved hands down his front, smoothing his uniform after his efforts to keep them in Archie and everything else out. Dan was tempted to tell him to take a layer or so off because he had to be baking, but he couldn’t face the idea of seeing his partner’s skin, exposed and vulnerable, in such circumstances. Once Rorschach had tided himself up to his satisfaction, he put his hands in his pockets. With him quietly watching Dan work, it was almost exactly like being in the basement.   
Dan felt both chilled and impressed with how stoic they were being. Then again, the only alternative was blind panic and that wouldn’t help anyone. He reached for a screwdriver. “I wish I’d known about this dinosaur thing before now” he commented. “We could have gone to a museum or something.”  
“It’s not really a noteworthy interest, Daniel. I haven’t spent time learning about them since childhood.”  
Dan resisted the temptation to point out that anything about Rorschach was noteworthy since he shared so little. He didn’t want Rorschach to die regretting that. Instead he said, “You must have been an ever bigger dinosaur geek than me as a boy, to remember it all.”   
“Hurm.” There was more silence. It was broken by another round of snapping and attempts to gain entry on the part of the raptors. 

After almost knocking down the entire barricade three times, the raptors backed off again and stood growling outside. Rorschach stood guard, his fists clenched. Dan tried to concentrate on the repairs, his hands still trembling. They couldn’t possibly hold the animals off much longer.   
“The others will be fine” Rorschach said at last, in the tone of someone trying to reassure himself. “They can take the children to the bunker and summon assistance from there. The Comedian still has military connections. He can convince them of the seriousness of the situation.”   
“True. I am kind of hoping we don’t die though” Dan’s hope was rattled along with the entire ship as several raptors launched themselves at it. He swore and clutched the passenger seat until it was over. 

They continued like that for what felt like hours, Dan working on the ship and Rorschach fending off the raptors, who seemed more and more determined to get in. After a long time, there was silence again. Rorschach was still on his feet, but out of breath. Dan glanced up at him, assessing him for injuries and was relieved to see none. Once Rorschach caught his breath there was another period of silence, broken by the grumbling raptors a few feet away. Rorschach asked, “Is it nearly fixed yet?”  
“Nowhere near nearly” Dan sighed. “Sorry. It’s starting to look pretty hopeless. I’m not even sure this next bit’s going to work. We might be on the menu after all.” He heard his voice waver very slightly. Rorschach said nothing for a long time. He just stood watch. 

Eventually, when Rorschach did speak, he said, “There was a series of magazines about dinosaurs published when I was a child.”  
Dan froze for a moment. Rorschach never spoke about his childhood. It just didn’t happen. “And that’s what got you into them?” he asked carefully, not wanting to break the spell.  
Rorschach nodded, still staring at the dinosaurs outside. “The year I turned eleven. Moved to…moved to a new location.”  
“Your family moved house, huh? I was totally lost when my folks moved me to the city. I didn’t know anyone. Was that how it was for you?”  
“My family didn’t move. I did.”  
“Oh” Dan shut up. He’d sometimes half suspected that Rorschach had spent some time in an institution of some sort. It was just visible beneath the surface in those moments when Rorschach seemed to find even the simplest comforts the height of luxury or when he guarded his privacy almost as if out of habit, as if it was all he had to guard. Now it was confirmed Dan couldn’t think of a single thing to say. As if he could sense Dan’s need to commiserate, Rorschach growled, “Don’t say anything Daniel.”  
“Sure.”  
“I’m only telling you this because we’re going to be eaten.”  
“Okay.” But Dan couldn’t help but notice the mask was staying on and his partner wasn’t telling him his real name. Maybe Rorschach still had some hope they’d make it or maybe he just didn’t realise how badly Dan wanted to know who he really was. Dan wondered if he should tell him but trying to control his partner’s last moments like that seemed a bit demanding. It would be a shame to break a deeply entrenched pattern of demanding nothing.   
Rorschach added, “If we live, you tell no-one.”  
“Obviously not. You know I wouldn’t.”  
“I was given an allowance for the first time.” Rorschach went on “Wanted to spend it on something.”  
“So you bought the magazines and, err, fell in love with them?” Dan smiled, thinking of the bird books he’d hoarded as a child.   
“Suppose. They had 3D glasses in the first edition, and a picture to view with them in the centre of each magazine. I used to line them all up in the dormitory when no-one was around, and look at them all at once and pretend I was in a place like this.”  
Dan’s smile widened. He kept working on Archie’s repairs, imaging his partner as a child (a red headed little boy – he had seen the stubble) poring over palaeontology magazines. “You must have had lot of them to have learnt so much.”   
“Eight.”  
“Oh? Was the print cancelled after that?”  
Rorschach shifted slightly. “I was in a fight with another boy. My allowance was taken away.”  
“That seems a little harsh.”  
“I did break his fingers, Daniel.”  
“Oh. Well, even so, discouraging your interest can’t have helped!”  
Rorschach made a noise that Dan identified as philosophical acceptance. He realised he really had to have gotten to know Rorschach pretty well over the years to recognise that one. Rorschach explained, “They did their best with often difficult children. Can’t hold it against them.”   
Dan wished he’d know Rorschach as a child.   
He blinked down at the wires in his hands. He just need to reattach them, replace one more part and then – “Buddy? Tell those raptors to cancel the dinner plans. We’ll be in the air in a couple of minutes.”


	9. chapter 9

“Damn it! After we came all that way!”   
“We had to check.”   
“Yes, I know but just damn it, Adrian! We wasted time wading through a goddamn river and there’s no-one there!” Laurie ran a hand through her damp hair. “Really, what are the chances they’ll be alive? Let alone all together! If you’re right about the carnivore thing –”  
“If I am, then it’s all the more important we reach the children quickly and now we’re here, we have both sides of the valley covered.”  
“Yeah assuming Eddie’s even still alive! Why isn’t he answering?”  
“You know Eddie. He probably had a nicotine withdrawal related tantrum and stamped on the radio.” But Adrian looked worried. Laurie shut up, her own worry growing. They plodded on in silence for a while. 

It was mid afternoon now and baking hot. Every so often a scaly little animal or enormous insect skittered into their path providing a brief entertainment that Laurie appreciated less and less as her concern for the kids grew. She had been stupidly sure that they would cross the valley to find them in the first viewing platform they came to.   
She hated to admit it but her worry for the Comedian wasn’t helping either. The man was a pig but she didn’t like the idea of anything happening to him.   
She swore as her shoeless state finally caught up with her in the form of a thorn.   
“Are you okay, Laurie?”  
“Yeah, I’m fucking great.” Laurie reached down and pulled the offending spike out.   
“Perhaps I should have offered to carry your shoes. The plant life does seem to be getting denser.”  
“Aw well, my shoes wouldn’t have helped anyway. I’m better off like this. I guess this makes it official; as soon as we get back I –” She stopped as Adrian held up his hand in warning. For a second she thought he must have spotted a child’s possession or footprint but when she followed his suddenly intent gaze there was only Bubastis. The lynx was motionless, her expression fixed in a snarl. Her fur was bristling.   
Adrian took a careful step towards her. “Bubu? Girl, what is it?”  
Bubastis turned her great head to him and Laurie wondered for a crazy moment if the cat could talk or if she could somehow convey to Adrian psychically what she had smelt because the look on her face was so intent. That was when the dinosaur emerged from the undergrowth. 

Laurie wondered how anything so big could have been so well hidden. The dinosaur was slightly bigger than a man once it had unfurled its predatory crouch to reveal its full height. But its long tail and the compact muscular frame that allowed no inch to be anything but deadly seemed to add to its size. Its dark scales gleamed in the sunlight, reminding her of the leather worn by the Top Knots. Laurie’s eyes were drawn to the enormous claw that curled upwards from its ankle. As sharp as any blade.   
Bubastis turned her head slowly back towards it. She snarled again, her body tensing defensively as she faced the monster. The dinosaur bared its own teeth right back and issued a horrible roar.   
Adrian had frozen in his tracks and Laurie could see why – there was no way he could reach Bubastis before the dinosaur. Like her, all he could do was stare transfixed at the spectacle of mutant mammal versus prehistoric reptile. 

The two animals lunged without warning and whacked into each other midair. Bubastis turned out to be slightly heavier, or at least just luckier, because she managed to pin the dinosaur to the ground as they landed. Her teeth sank into its neck and the dinosaur growled and hissed, twisting itself to angle its claw and –  
“No!” Adrian darted forward before the dinosaur could tear a hole in Bubastis’ belly. Laurie’s mouth fell open as the smartest man on earth did perhaps the most stupid thing anyone had ever done. He forced his way between the two predators and started hitting the reptile again and again. At first the reptile, like Laurie and Bubastis, seemed too surprised at this development to do anything but stare. It lashed out with its claw again but Adrian was too quick for it, pinning one leg and to dodge out of the way of the other. The dinosaur flipped him sideways. Laurie raised the gun but now Adrian and the dinosaur were actually wrestling, pushing each other back and forth in the dirt, and she didn’t want to risk shooting Adrian. All she could do was watch, increasingly frustrated with the whole situation, with her inability to help and with Adrian in particular.   
What the hell was he thinking? Adrian didn’t use lethal force and had absolutely nothing on him equipped to deal with a ravenous dinosaur…except for his cape, apparently, which he whipped over the animal’s head, blinding and confusing it. The dinosaur staggered to its feet and bulldozed into Adrian who tried to shove it away but ended up pinned beneath it as it fell. Cue another wrestling match with Laurie trying and failing to get a clear shot and the dinosaur and Bubastis clearly searching for a moment to pounce that wouldn’t result in an injured Adrian or a disembowelled lynx. Briefly, Adrian had a chance to escape but he didn’t take it. Instead he barrelled back into the dinosaur before either Laurie or Bubastis had a chance to react. Laurie met the mutant’s gaze from the other side of the mêlée. The lynx gave her a “Rrrl” which seemed to say “Don’t look at me; I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing either.”  
Bubastis was the first to look away, her gaze shifting to the surrounding undergrowth. Laurie followed suit. There was the faintest of rustling from within the plant life. 

Laurie swallowed her shock as another dinosaur, exactly the same as the one Adrian was pounding, emerged from its hiding place. She shot it cleanly between the eyes. It crumpled. Then another appeared. She shot that too. Then another, and another and she issued two more shots, the creatures falling around her. Adrian and his opponent broke apart as the fifth shot ran out, narrowly avoiding the fifth dinosaur crushing them. Adrian grabbed Bubastis by the scruff of her neck and pulled her into a protective crouch as the bullets – and falling dinosaurs – rained around them. For an insane moment, the whole situation was like a video game. The dinosaurs attacked, Laurie shot them, and then more appeared. She had fired at least ten shots when the gun clicked emptily. 

Unfortunately there were at least twenty dinosaurs to begin with. The survivors didn’t take long to realise their surprisingly explosive opponent was no longer a threat but a snack. As they advanced, Laurie realised that a handful had somehow circled around her – that or they had been hiding behind her to start with.   
She twisted away from a lazy snap of a monstrous jaw and bumped into Adrian as he got to his feet. She punched him on the arm. He scowled. “I don’t think that was necessary, Laurie.”  
“Oh really? You think I was just gonna let it slide that you just had a wrestling match with a goddamn dinosaur?! Damn it Adrian! That thing could have killed you!” It probably still will, she thought grimly, as the deadly circle tightened around them.  
“I’m sorry” Adrian stepped over one of the many bullet ridden reptiles on the ground as he back away from the oncoming mob. “But no-one threatens my cat.”   
Bubastis made a soft rumbling purr that sounded simultaneously grateful and exasperated. As the dinosaurs moved closer still the three of them instinctively formed a circle of their own, their backs – and Bubastis’ tail – to one another. The reptilian circle was now so tight that Laurie could feel hot breath on her face. 

“Laurie?” Adrian glanced away from the wall of teeth around him. “I don’t suppose you have any spare bullets?”  
“Adrian, if I had spare bullets don’t you think I’d have reloaded by now?” Laurie swallowed as she registered the meat stench on the dinosaurs’ breath.  
“Sorry” replied Adrian. “I was just hoping.”  
“Yeah well the Comedian didn’t give me any, God knows why.” Laurie’s gaze darted around the circle. There was no escape.   
“I think Eddie just switches to a new gun when he runs out.”  
Laurie gasped as the dinosaur directly in front of her stepped closer still. “That idiotic bastard!” she managed, “I hope he did get eaten!” I don’t, she added internally, I take that back God. Let the others be okay and let the children be okay and let this be quick.  
The dinosaur raised one long, claw adorned foreleg. It would be quick. Laurie closed her eyes. 

She opened them when what she heard was a muffled whoosh not a roar and a sudden heat instead of a sudden pain. Adrian pulled her to the ground. Laurie felt herself grin manically with sheer relief as the owl ship flew low over them, scattering the dinosaurs with another warning blast of the flame throwers.   
Keeping a careful eye on the fleeing dinosaurs in case any decided to regroup, the two heroes stood up as Archie’s flames shut out.   
Waving at them as he soared over, Dan piloted Archie to a clear patch of land some feet away and opened his doors for them. They piled in. 

“Oh my God!” gasped Laurie as soon as they were aboard. “Dan, I could kiss you!”   
Dan went bright red. Rorschach issued a growl from the passenger seat and Laurie rounded on him because she had had more than enough of growling for one day. “Damn it, Rorschach, it’s a figure of speech! There’s no need for you to get all protective!”  
“What happened down there?” asked Dan, steering them back into the air. Laurie registered the glassless windows and held tightly on to the back of Rorschach’s seat.   
“Adrian picked a fight with a…whatever those things were.”  
“Velociraptors” Rorschach supplied.   
“In fairness” said Adrian “It did attack Bubu”  
“Well” replied Dan, “I guess that’s alright then”   
Bubastis curled up at the back of the ship and purred smugly.   
“Heard from the Comedian?” asked Rorschach.  
“No. Nothing after we crossed the river.” Now that Laurie didn’t have to worry about herself and Adrian, her concern for the Comedian suddenly felt raw. Dan must have sensed it because he quickly reassured her, “We might spot him from the air. Adrian, where do I need to go for the viewing platforms?”   
“We’ve in the valley where most of them are so just keep going straight.”  
“Good because I don’t want to put Archie through any more fancy manoeuvres with his windows bust.” Dan steered the ship higher until the whole valley was spread below them like a wide street. Up here the broken windows made their presence known with a constant warm breeze and Laurie kept her hold on the passenger seat while Adrian did the same to Dan’s seat, leaning forward to stare at the scene below them. 

The river ribboned through the valley and numerous large creatures dotted the landscape. Some ignored the owl ship completely but most at least glanced at it, some hurrying out of its shadow as it passed over. “I know we need to keep an eye on the ground” said Dan “but could someone look out for those flying things too? I don’t want another crash.”  
“Sure” Laurie scanned the skyline and saw nothing but endless blue.  
They passed some empty viewing platforms. Dan lowered Archie to drive by level with them so they could check inside, but for what felt like ages all they saw were empty rooms. Laurie began to wonder if the children had for whatever reason tried to make it somewhere else. 

“There!” Adrian exclaimed at last beside her. Laurie looked where he was pointing, to another viewing platform which appeared through the foliage as they approached.   
“Yes!” she clapped her hand against Rorschach’s seat, causing him to tense. “Dan, get us over there!”  
“I’m on it” The owlship swooped nearer. As the platform lurched into view Laurie saw more clearly what had made her so relieved when she’d just thought she might have seen it in the distance: A small hand waving. 

As the owl ship approached more children came to the window and it wasn’t long before they had a small crowd of eight or nine year olds waiting to greet them just as soon as they landed...which was looking to be a problem.   
As they finally pulled into a hover everyone looked expectantly at Dan. He shook his head. “Sorry but there’s nowhere level with the platform to land so someone’s going to have to go down there and get them onto the gangplank preferably” – Dan suddenly looked alarmed and pointed to the valley floor – “before those things find a way up.”   
They all followed his gaze to the creatures emerging from behind some rocks near the steps up to the platform and shuddered. More velociraptors.


	10. chapter 10

“Damn!” Laurie gripped Rorschach’s shoulder spasmodically as the team of predators started leaping up the staircase, clearing multiple steps in a single bound. They would reach the viewing platform in a few moments. Rorschach had to be thinking the same because he was too fixated on the velociraptors’ progress to flinch at Laurie’s touch. Laurie let him go and headed to Archie’s trapdoor. “Dan, let me down there, now!”   
Dan pulled the ship directly over the viewing platform and opened the hatch. Laurie jumped to land in a crouch on the roof. Adrian and Rorschach dropped down beside her. 

They ran to the edge of the roof to see that the velociraptors were almost at the top of the steps now. Before any of them could react Archie had swung towards the dinosaurs, the hatch closing as the flame throwers licked the top steps. The velociraptors stopped still and stared up at the ship. Over the loudspeaker Dan said, “Get to the children!” There was another burst of flame and the velociraptors retreated a little, protesting loudly. It was a chilling sound. 

Laurie looked around. Jumping on to the roof had been part instinct and part the only option as the windows that ringed the building were smooth and ledge-less, but now she wondered how they were meant to get inside from here. Adrian was clearly thinking the same thing, his gaze sweeping the roof for any useful air vent or sky hatch and finding none. Rorschach brushed past them. “No way in but the door” he said, heading under Archie’s shadow to the section of roof above the top of the external staircase.   
“The door where the flame throwers verses velociraptor battle is going on?” Laurie followed him, “Sure we can get the children out there – I can’t see anything wrong with that plan!”  
“No need for sarcasm Ms Juspeczyk” Rorschach dropped down to the landing at the top of the stairs. 

Seeing what his partner was doing, Dan moved the owl ship forward, forcing the velociraptors back further to the lowest steps. A few hissed and ran off to the rocks and thicker undergrowth on the valley floor but plenty held their ground. Laurie watched as a handful leapt sideways to avoid a fresh burst of flames, their claws digging into the sloping earth where met valley. It didn’t actually seem like the flames were reaching them, just scaring them, and a few of them seemed to have gotten over it. Impossibly, some were even making progress, ducking forward out of range of the flame throwers.   
As the velociraptors moved closer and Archie turned to track them, Laurie had to yell above the noise of angry dinosaurs and hissing flames, “Adrian – stay here – Rorschach and I will pass the children to you” With that Laurie dropped beside Rorschach at the top of the velociraptor infested stairs. 

Rorschach was in the process of trying to force the glass door open. There was no mechanical lock to pick so he was reduced to doing it the way anyone would, with his shoulder against it. Inside the children were clustered anxiously at the far end of the room. Laurie frowned. None of the doors of the other platforms they’d tried were locked. Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to kick the door with no shoes on, Laurie turned away and automatically raised the gun on the oncoming predators before remembering that it was out of bullets and that – unlike criminals –the dinosaurs wouldn’t think to co-operate just in case it was loaded. Stifling a swearword despite the fact the children couldn’t hear her through the thick glass, she turned back to peer inside. 

Above a window she spotted the sign that said emergency lock. Some clever kid must have pulled the accompanying lever when the predators invaded this section of the park and thank God for that, or they could have been finding something much grimmer in this room. Laurie tapped on the window and pointed at the lever. She and Rorschach watched as a girl a little taller than the others, with a long braid down her back, broke away from the group and tried the lever. A little screen beside it lit up with the words please enter security override code. The little girl turned to them and shook her head sadly. Laurie nodded reassuringly and stepped back so that Rorschach could kick the door. It rattled in the frame but didn’t open. Rorschach stepped back to try the grappling gun but the narrow platform they were standing on didn’t give him the space needed for it to make an impact on the thick glass. He handed it to Laurie.

Behind them a handful of velociraptors had now dodged the flames in entirely the wrong direction and Laurie could only watch as they climbed closer. Dan shot a streak of fire after them and she felt the heat on her face. One dinosaur was engulfed and plunged off the cliff with a heart-wrenching shriek but another pair simply ran faster, heading straight for Laurie and Rorschach. “Rorschach!” Laurie heard the fear in her voice and tried to quash it, “You might want to hurry up!” Rorschach grunted, kicking the door again. Inside, the children were looking hopeful as their rescuers looked about to get in, but Laurie wondered what on earth they’d do once the door was down. They had to get the children on the airship but the way things were going weren’t they just giving the dinosaurs a chance to attack if they got the door open?   
The tumbling, fire coated dinosaur finally hit the floor of the valley with a sickening crash, infusing the air with the smell of burnt reptile. Laurie gasped as some of the undergrowth briefly lit up. Now she understood why Dan wasn’t flying lower to actually injure the damn things. Luckily, the panicked flight of another velociraptor stubbed out the fledgling forest fire. 

The two velociraptors who had dodged the flames were getting closer by the second. Above them Laurie could see Dan’s frightened face. He couldn’t move the ship any closer to the stone steps without crashing into the building or getting his fellow masks with the flame throwers. She knew he couldn’t use the screechers either – not unless he wanted to explain to Jon how she’d come back from a mission deaf. Seeing more velociraptors heading up the steps with the owl ship turned, Laurie pointed urgently. Dan swung Archie round and headed off this second attack while Laurie braced herself for the two oncoming survivors of the first. She raised Rorschach’s grappling gun and fired.   
The closest dinosaur was hit square in the chest. It toppled, rolling down the steps. Laurie couldn’t help but feel a stab of admiration for these creatures’ agility and intelligence when the dinosaur behind jumped over its rolling companion without breaking pace. Any other animal would have been knocked over. She couldn’t stop herself swearing this time and it was a mark of how serious the situation was that Rorschach didn’t reprimand her. Before she could fire the grappling gun again, the dinosaur’s attention was diverted by a rock hitting its head.   
Laurie looked up to see Adrian hurl another stone. The dinosaur in front of her let out a supremely pissed screech as it was hit in the eye. Rorschach used its moment of distraction to grab it by the tail and swing it at the door. Laurie yelped and jumped out the way of the swirl of scales, teeth and claws. It didn’t seem possible for a guy Rorschach’s size to be able to lift this hulk of muscle but he had caught it at just the right angle to be able to smack it into the glass. The dinosaur let out an outraged squeal, its claws scrambling for purchase. As the glass cracked, Rorschach dropped it down the side of the cliff.  
“Holy crap, Rorschach!”  
“Enk. Would thank you to use more ladylike language, Silk Spectre”  
Laurie instantly went from open admiration to having to concentrate to stop herself pushing Rorschach down the cliff after the velociraptor. She contented herself with a “Fuck you, blot face” before helping him pull the cubes of glass from the doorway. The children cheered as they entered.

Getting the children onto the roof was relatively straight forward. Rorschach’s grappling gun found flimsy purchase in a vine overhanging the building and Adrian was able to reach it and reinforce it with his cape. Then Rorschach and Laurie took turns to carry children up to Adrian along the retractable wire, keeping an eye on the velociraptors in the valley all the time. 

The velociraptors were now a reassuring distance from the steps but they were definitely attempting to retake ground. Dan had resorted to swooping low without the flame throwers on to stop them getting past, knocking them over but, it seemed, not doing them any real damage. The things mostly just jumped up again, jaws snapping at Archie’s dented side. 

There were eleven kids. They had been dropped off at the viewing platform while their teacher and the rest of the class went on to another area of the park which they had been safely evacuated from. They were shocked and scared but quickly rallied now that help had arrived and several times Adrian had to call the growing crowd on the roof back from the edge when they couldn’t resist moving closer to watch the airship swooping about.   
“Okay” said Laurie at last, hoisting a small bespectacled boy into Adrian’s arms, “That’s all of them.” She clambered on to the roof after the child. “We just need Nite Owl to swing by and pick us up now so –”  
Below her in the doorway, Rorschach let out a whimper. Laurie echoed it when she saw that one of the velociraptors had just leapt through the broken window and into the owlship as it swept down to stop block the route to the staircase. Laurie quickly jumped back off the roof to grab Rorschach before he could go tearing down there – Archie was back in the air and there wasn’t anything they could do racing down the steps except get eaten.

Archie swerved wildly in the air. Laurie heard the horrified exclamations of the children from the roof. Rorschach struggled in her grip and she tightened her hold on him. “Rorschach, stop! What are you even going to do? Jeez!” Hearing herself use Dan’s standard frustrated exclamation didn’t help at all. She stared at the swaying airship hating that she didn’t know what was going on inside. Was Dan even alive in there? He had to be.  
Then Archie started to toss and rotate uncontrollably, looking crazy as whatever battle was being fought inside took priority over driving. As the bare windows swung by they got a glimpse of Dan and the velociraptor staggering as the floor beneath them tilted. Dan briefly managed to regain control and the ship’s movement steadied, but then the velociraptor dived for him, the ship spun again, hiding the scene from view.   
Rorschach tensed as the ship suddenly plummeted and Laurie found her grip on him tightening not to stop him running to his death but out of sheer terror. At the last moment, Rorschach put his hands over his eyes like a child and Laurie ducked her face into his neck. At least she wouldn’t have to see the moment of impact even if she had to hear it…but it never came. Peeping from behind Rorschach Laurie saw Archie swerve away from the oncoming collision. It bounced, scuffing the ground, before streaking along the valley floor skimming the undergrowth. The remaining velociraptors scattered. A few ran for the staircase and up it, towards them, but Laurie only noticed this distantly. She felt pinned to the spot, couldn’t do anything but watch Archie dart across the ground.   
Suddenly they saw something shoot from a thicket and race for the low flying ship. For a horrible moment Laurie thought it was another velociraptor but then she heard Adrian shout from the roof, “There! That’s the Comedian!”  
Laurie only realised that Rorschach had still been hiding his face in his hands the whole time when he lifted it at this. Looking beyond him and down the staircase she realised they were about to be attacked again and reached for the hanging grappling gun, snapped them both roof-wards before the oncoming dinosaurs could reach them. As the wire retracted, Adrian pulled them to safety.   
On the roof the children were huddled together, some hiding their faces as Rorschach had done, others staring as the Comedian pulled onboard a still out-of-control Archie, his bazooka and what looked like a big roll of cloth slung over his shoulder. He disappeared inside the ship, which instantly started to rise. 

Adrian rescued his cape and the grappling gun from the vines as the velociraptors growled from the viewing platform, climbing through the busted doorway and into the room the children had been in not ten minutes ago.   
In the air, Archie continued to toss and buckle, sometimes appearing almost under control, sometimes really not. Straightening up Adrian murmured, too low for the children to hear, “What do we do if they crash? We should come up with a back up plan now”  
Laurie knew it was a reasonable question with the children to protect but she couldn’t help resenting it. She murmured back, “Off the top of my head, I’m going to go with die.” Beside her, Rorschach ignored Adrian as if he hadn’t spoken.  
Suddenly the worried chatter of the children turned into cheers and Laurie registered what they had seen – a dinosaur tumbling in midair as it fell from Archie’s busted window. She realised she was still holding Rorschach’s wrist. She hastily let him go. “Oh thank God! That scared me!” She waved madly along with the children as Archie finally approached and hovered by the roof. 

The side door opened to reveal Dan, looking slightly rumpled, and the Comedian looking pretty much the same as ever. The gangplank was lowered.  
Adrian, Laurie and Rorschach organised the children into a line and they were helped across one after another, Laurie holding their hand to the halfway point, after which the Comedian took over, steering them by the shoulder and lifting them into Archie. After eleven such exchanges, Adrian, Laurie and Rorschach boarded, stumbling gratefully into Archie’s interior. 

Inside, Rorschach reached Dan in a few strides. Laurie half expected them to hug but Rorschach settled for gripping both Dan’s upper arms and squeezing hard. “Hurt Nite Owl?”  
“No, buddy, just a little shaken up. My armour’s pretty dented too. Are you okay?”  
Rorschach nodded. Dan gently detached himself from his partner’s grip and sat down, Rorschach hovering behind him as he steered the ship higher. “Okay” said Dan, “One rescue down and one to go.”


	11. chapter 11

“Wait, wait” the Comedian interrupted Adrian’s retelling of what had happened since they split. “You’re telling me Nite Owl almost set the whole place on fire and no-one thought to keep one single spark going?” He plucked the cigar from behind his ear. “I’ve been waiting to light this thing all day!”  
“Sorry, Comedian.” Like the Comedian, Adrian switched to their mask names with the children around, “It wasn’t really our immediate priority what with children to save and an airship out of control overhead.”  
At that comment, Dan interjected from the driver’s seat, “It wasn’t out of control! I admit that when the velociraptor’s tail got caught in the steering wheel it was a hairy moment but I was handling the situation!”  
“Okay Owly. When I jumped in you and that damn thing might both have been tangled up in your clothes rack but that was all part of your plan, right?”  
Dan said nothing, probably not wanting to get into an argument with the Comedian with the children around. They were at the back of the ship fussing over Bubastis who was curled on her side purring, batting them gently with her claws retracted and generally acting like a overgrown house cat. They were easily within earshot so everyone was being careful not to show any fear about the fact that they were still flying over an island full of dinosaurs and everyone except the Comedian was watching their language. 

After a tired silence broken only by the children’s chatter, the Comedian said, “Oh, Silk Spectre – I got you something, kid.”  
Laurie glanced up from reloading the gun. The Comedian was holding up the item she had thought looked like a roll of cloth from a distance. Up close she realised it was a roll of skin, caked in dried blood. “Ew! Comedian, what is that?”  
“That, kid, is T-Rex skin. For your new shoes.”  
Laurie stepped around the crowd of children, letting Adrian take over Bubastis supervising duty. She took the hide the Comedian held out. It was a on the yellowish side of green, thick and leathery, with a scatter of darker specks here and there as though its owner had been freckled. She could tell that properly shined it would be beautiful but, “There’s no way this is from a T-rex.”  
“It is so from a T-rex!” The Comedian actually pouted.  
“No way! You shot one of the plant eaters, didn’t you? Admit it.”  
“It was a T-rex! The damn thing almost had me for dinner!”  
“You brought a T-rex down on your own? Come on, Comedian, no-one’s that good!”  
“Well I did have a bazooka. I swear to God I did it! I bet we could take a detour over to show you. Owly?”  
“Sorry Comedian, Archie’s been through enough without detours to look at dead T-rexes”   
“So you believe me then?”  
“I didn’t say that” Dan shifted forward in the wobbling pilot seat, excluding himself from the conversation. Laurie weighed the skin in her hands making no comment. Rorschach, watching with interest from behind the pilot seat told her, “I know a man in the garment district who could prepare it, Silk Spectre. More than enough there for a pair of boots.”   
Laurie nodded slowly, considering. “It could look really good, couldn’t it? Whatever it’s from.” She gave the Comedian a shy hug. “Thanks”  
The Comedian grinned. 

“Okay” announced Dan, “I think we’re leaving the more untamed part of the park.” The ground beneath them was now a patch of grassy shrub land running down to a river. On the opposite shore a row of tour boats were moored and beyond them a paved area led to a large, modern building. Adrian came to the front of the ship. “Good. The bunker is near the main building, which I imagine is that.” The sight of the hotel-like structure emphasised more than anything else how close the owners of this place had come to exposing the general public to dinosaurs on a scale beyond the small group of children now chatting in the back of the ship. 

When they flew over the building it looked as if the second rescue would go flawlessly. The carnivorous dinosaurs that had surrounded it when the people inside had called them that morning had given up by this time and they had only a big, armoured, boulder-like creature that Rorschach called an Ankylosaurus to deal with. Even so, Dan stayed at the controls while the others disembarked via the rope ladder, ready to get the children and everyone else safely in the air the second they boarded.   
Laurie hit the ground with a graceful ease that emphasised how much of an advantage it was not to be wearing high heels in situations like these. As everyone else joined her, she watched the Ankylosaurus make its slow way from one side of the paved area by the river to the other. It was like an enormous tortoise with a long tail, so utterly encased in protective crusts that the club at the tip of said tail seemed almost superfluous. She asked, “Am I the only one tempted to have a ride on that thing?”  
“No” replied Rorschach.   
“We’re not here for rides” Adrian told them sternly. “We’re here to rescue the people in the bunker.”  
Laurie rolled her eyes and, when she saw Rorschach’s blank face turn her way, wondered if they’d just shared a moment. That would be a first.   
Once the Comedian had dropped down beside them they headed over to the reception building, glancing around at the surreal sight of such a classy oasis in such savage surroundings. 

The reception building was mostly glass, the foyer dominated by a massive welcome desk with the skeleton of some sort of flying monster suspended above it. Laurie peered in with her hands either side of her head. “No useful sign saying this way to the bunker” she announced, “but then I guess that’s not the first thing you want your guests to see when they check in.”  
“Indeed” Adrian glanced around. “How about we split into pairs and circle the building? Comedian, you’re with me.”   
Laurie was a little annoyed about Adrian nabbing the only one among them who’d possibly bested a T-rex and leaving her with Rorschach but she doubted anything big was lurking around here. Apart from the lost looking Ankylosaurus, surely all the dinosaurs would want to stay in the forest? 

She and Rorschach headed off in one direction and the Comedian and Ozymandias in the other. It felt strange walking on concrete after so much jungle. Laurie was more aware of her bare feet this way. They passed the river and Laurie ran a critical eye over the waiting pleasure boats. Considering what was out there, they were pretty flimsy. “I can’t believe this place was almost open to the public” she said. “I mean, the herbivores are cool but whoever thought bringing back the rest of them was a good idea needs their head examined!”  
“Hurm. I agree opening the place to tourists was unwise but it would be only natural for anyone recreating dinosaurs to want to see a tyrannosaurus rex.”  
“I rest my case!”

They reached the back of the building without seeing any entrances to any bunkers and found they couldn’t circle the structure fully as a glass walkway attaching the reception building to the hotel behind it was in the way. Rorschach scaled the wall expertly and put his hand out to Laurie. She regarded it icily. “I can get up there by myself, blot face.”  
“You should think twice about the attitude, Ms Juspeczyk or you might have to pay for those shoes.”   
Laurie bit back her next insult at that and reached for his gloved hand. Just as their fingers locked, Adrian’s voice buzzed on her radio. “Laurie, Rorschach, we’ve found the bunker but the communication equipment on the door has been smashed by something. It’s all sealed up and can only be opened from the inside so it’ll take us a while to get in with no way of talking them.”  
“Great” Laurie let Rorschach haul her up. “It was probably that ankysaurus”  
“Ankylosaurus” corrected Rorschach. Laurie stuck her tongue out at him before speaking into the radio. “Okay, Adrian, we’re on top of the walkway to the hotel so we’ll –”  
Dan’s voice interrupted, booming from Archie’s loudspeaker. “Guys? I don’t want to worry you but I can see something heading up river.”  
Laurie adjusted the frequency on her radio to talk to the ship. “What is it, Dan?”   
“Looks like a giant fin…”   
Laurie listened to the section of the river they had just passed but couldn’t hear any telltale ripples. “Maybe just a big fish?” she asked hopefully.   
“No…I think…oh. Oh damn.”  
The Comedian’s voice joined the conversation, crackling with static. “Well don’t keep us guessing, Owly. What is it?”  
“I have no idea. But out of all the dinosaurs I’ve seen so far…”  
“Yes?”  
“I think this is the biggest.”


	12. Chapter 12

“What?” The Comedian’s voice made the sound on Laurie’s radio ripple with static as he sent a cackle skywards. “Keep your panties on, Nite Owl! I’m sure you were pretty freaked out by those ickle baby stegysauruses, but my bazooka had no trouble with a T-rex so…oh shoot. That there’s a monster.”  
Laurie felt a chill across her skin and realised she and Rorschach had been cast into shadow. Their faces turned slowly from the radio in her hand to the shadow’s towering source. “Oh shit” managed Laurie. And then, “Jump!”

They both leapt backwards off the walkway as the dinosaur lunged with a snap of its long jaws. On the ground, Laurie scrambled to her feet. “Shit! What the hell is that thing?”  
Rorschach grabbed her hand and pulled her into the sheltering doorway of a fire exit on the side of the walkway. “No idea” he replied. And then, in a tone of wonder, “They found a new one.”  
“Great” replied Laurie, “A happy day for dinosaur nerds everywhere, I’m sure! Meantime, how do we stop it eating u – whoa!” She and Rorschach instinctively ducked and raced for cover as the walkway fell apart around them. A chunk of falling bricks had them each jump in a different direction, away from each other. Laurie landed with a thud and jumped up again, ran alongside the hotel. Rorschach must have found a hole to crawl in because the thing went straight for her, all snapping, crocodile-like jaws and great, swiping claws. Laurie tried to make it to the end of the building but there was just no way it was happening so she changed course, clambering on to a windowsill and bashing her fist against the glass.   
It didn’t give. The assholes who built this place didn’t exactly have great safety standards but they had thought to include double glazing. Laurie swore. Then she felt her costume ripple as something big snorted behind her. She turned, still balanced on the window frame.

The creature in front of her was huge. It looked like the result of a T-rex and an alligator having a summer fling, which for all she knew might have been the case. It had a long snout full of razorblade teeth. Its back was adorned with a huge sail of spines and skin that should have been funny but weren’t. Two beady eyes regarded her hungrily. Mechanically, she reached for her gun.   
It wasn’t there. Her mouth went dry. She must have dropped the damn thing when she dodged the falling bricks. Her fingers closed around her radio instead, lifted it slowly to her lips. Hardly daring to speak she managed, “Guys? A little help here?” before lowering her hand slowly. The monster stared at her down the length of its jaws. It was bent double, so towering it couldn’t have its head level with her any other way. She stood motionless. Maybe it couldn’t see her if she didn’t move. The dinosaur took one careful step closer to the building and bent even closer. Laurie held her breath.   
“Hey! Over here!” Dan’s amplified voice sliced through the air. He must have been shouting at the top of his voice into the intercom because it sounder than Laurie had ever heard it. The dinosaur stared around and swiped lazily at the swooping owlship. While it was distracted, Laurie slipped from the window ledge and ran.

She didn’t get far before the snapping jaws descended. She dived and the clamping teeth missed her, narrowly. She rolled to a stand and stared around for cover. She was still between the reception building and the hotel but she couldn’t see any doors, just thick glass windows with no obvious fastenings.   
The dinosaur filled the entire space. It lost interest in the owlship still hovering nearby and there was no way Dan could bring it closer without endangering the kids.   
Laurie realised that even if she saw a bolt hole, there was no way she could out run this thing. The dinosaur obviously knew it too. It loomed over her and issued a noise that sounded like triumph…which turned into a growl of displeasure as a grappling gun appeared, embedding itself in the monstrous fin. 

“Oh my God, Rorschach!” Laurie gasped as the man sprang to grip the dinosaur’s vicious head, “I was kidding about riding them!” She leapt out the way as the dinosaur moved, twisting about to try to dislodge Rorschach who started poking it in the eye, provoking a roar.   
As soon as its tail went through one of the hotel windows, Laurie scrambled for the break, pulling chunks of glass clear to create a human sized opening. “Rorschach, come on!” 

Just as she shouted, Rorschach was thrown clear, landing in a heap a few feet away. He jumped up, putting his dislodged hat back on and picking up the grappling gun – then fell. He tried to stand again but he’d obviously broken something. As the dinosaur swung its head down he used the grappling gun to cuff it around the face. Laurie ran to him and pulled him up and away from the angry monster and towards the window. 

She skidded to a halt as a huge foot descended. “Shit!” She spun around from the blocked-off path to the window to see the dinosaur’s other foot smack down on their other side. They were trapped. The dinosaur had them beneath the bulk of its body, the shadow descending again. All they could see when they looked skyward was scaly skin topped by the smug expression of something contemplating a well earned snack. “Well” managed Laurie, “I’d say it was nice knowing you but…”  
“Enk. Feeling is mutual, Miss Juspeczyk.”   
“Go fuck yourself, blot face!”  
“Won’t be time for that depravity. You should leave me here. Save yourself.”  
“Like I’d do that!” They ran instinctively as the dinosaur lunged, Rorschach still stumbling, Laurie still holding him up. They might as well have been ants trying to dodge a kid with a magnifying glass. The dinosaur didn’t even need to break into a run to trap them again and Laurie couldn’t see any way out until a welcome voice barked, “You kids get down!” 

They both face planted the concrete as the Comedian raised his bazooka. The dinosaur, seeing the larger target, took a few steps towards him, its feet rising and falling heavily on either side of Laurie and Rorschach. The Comedian stood his ground, loading his weapon. Laurie covered her ears…unnecessarily as it turned out. When the Comedian pulled the trigger what happened was not the pop and bang of the gun and the crash of a dead dinosaur but an impotent click. She raised her head.   
“Aw shit” the Comedian slipped his weapon off his shoulder and examined it, briefly pointing the barrel at his face. “That ain’t good.” He glanced up at the dinosaur barrelling towards him and said, “Wait, wait…it worked earlier…oh shoot…I mean literally shoot…” He shook the bazooka. It rattled slightly. Laurie ducked again as the dinosaur’s tail flickered above her head, following its path across the paved space between the buildings and straight for Edward Blake. Rorschach grabbed at it hopelessly, as if he might be able to pull it to a stop, but didn’t catch hold of it before the creature had left them behind completely, charging at the Comedian who finally said, “Okay then, plan B!” 

He ran straight at the oncoming dinosaur, throwing himself into a roll at the last moment and sliding straight between its legs. It turned clumsily with a savage snarl as he jumped up and, hoisting the useless bazooka back in its case on his back, scooped up Laurie with one arm and Rorschach with the other. He flung the three of them through the broken window to safety just as the dinosaur’s mouth closed inches behind them. 

“Fuck!” Laurie leapt to her feet as the dinosaur’s snout smashed through the window frame. “Run!”  
They scrambled deeper into the building, scattering dinosaur skeletons and a stand of bilingual welcome brochures as they barricaded themselves in a room down the hallway.

“Fuck!” gasped Laurie again, sinking to the ground. She gestured to the bazooka “Of all the times for that thing not to fucking work!”  
“Well it worked on the T-rex!” the Comedian snatched the weapon from his back to examine it again. “It just packed up with you guys watching! Performance anxiety or something.” He studied the gun as Rorschach dragged himself upright behind him. Laurie went over to him. “How’s your ankle, Rorschach?”  
“Fine. Comedian? How big was the tyrannosaurus compared to the one we just saw?”  
“Teeny, Inky, next to that brute. Cute and cuddly. Aw, damn it!” the Comedian rattled the bazooka it frustration. “Must have happened when the T-rex fell. Or getting knocked about in the owl ship…”  
Laurie sighed. “Eddie, stop pointing that thing at us! Where’s Adrian?”  
“Over the other side of this building trying to sweet talk the bunker door open. We’ve got three people ten feet underfoot with no way of knowing their ride’s here what with the intercom on the door all messed up. Is your ankle actually okay, Inky?”  
“Fine” Rorschach was holding the corner of a desk, putting no weight on the offending appendage.   
“How’d you do it?”   
Laurie rolled her eyes. “He had a ride on that thing out there and fell off!”  
“Aw, shit. If I’d known you kids were serious about riding them I wouldn’t have let you go off on your own together.”   
“Eddie, if you’re about to say you’d have stayed to be the responsible adult, then this day just got even weirder than the dinosaurs make it.”  
“Nah, I just think watching Ink straddle a dinosaur would be funny.”  
“I was trying to distract it from Miss Juspeczyk, Comedian.” Rorschach limped determinedly for the doorway in the far wall. “Come on. We can’t leave Ozymandias undefended.” 

After walking down a few hallways and past a swanky restaurant, they reached the other side of the hotel to find Adrian sheltering in an office inside. Beyond a smashed window a stretch of well kept grass led to an iron and concrete door embedded in the ground. The way to it was blocked by the dinosaur they had so narrowly escaped. It was pacing around, looking generally annoyed. “Damn it!” Laurie exclaimed, sinking into the office chair next to Adrian. “You’d think it would just give up eventually! I mean, we’re hardly going to be a filling meal for it!”  
“Hurm” Rorschach pulled himself on to the desk. “We could be in its territory or it could have a nest nearby. Who knows?”  
Laurie gestured to the door in the ground. “So how to we get into the bunker?”  
“Well” Adrian was staring at the door thoughtfully. “I think the obvious thing is to fix the communication gear. It’s set into the wall of the building. If we can get it working again we can alert the people in the bunker to our presence and they can simply open the door.”  
“And then get eaten by the dino out there” finished the Comedian, setting the broken bazooka aside and sitting down on the floor.   
“Yes, the animal does rather complicate matters.”  
“And the intercom” asked Laurie, “is on an external wall, right?”  
“Yes”  
“So we’d get eaten too?”  
“Well” Adrian sounded deeply frustrated, “aside from that I’d say it’s a good plan!”  
“Aside from us getting eaten and the three people we’re here to rescue getting eaten?”  
“Please bear in mind the alternative is trying to force the door, which would take a lot longer and still involve us being outside with whatever that thing is.” 

There was a silence broken only by the stomping of the monster outside. The Adrian decided, “If anyone’s able to fix the intercom quickly it will be Dan. Does anyone know how to fly the owlship? We could go to the other side of the building and do a swap.”  
There was another silence as everyone reflected on the varying degrees of baffled they’d been when Dan had trained them all on the basics of flying Archie. The Comedian shrugged, “I can keep it in the air if I don’t touch nothing. Maybe remember more if I had to. But I don’t see why I got to sit it out up there. Laurie, you should go. You were nodding the whole time Danny was explaining it.”   
“Only so he wouldn’t see how lost I was! I can barely steer!”  
“Maybe Rorschach should go?” mused Adrian. “After all you’re not going to be much use here with a broken ankle.”  
“Not sitting the rescue out on Archie, Veidt. Anyway I can’t fly it.”  
“But you’re in it more than any of us apart from Dan! You must have picked up a few flying tips!”  
“And you’re the smartest man on earth” countered Rorschach. “You must have picked up a few flying tips too.”  
Adrian ran a hand through his hair, something he only did when he was really stressed. “Maybe two of us should go? Between two of us I’m sure we could keep Archie in the air until Dan’s back onboard.”  
“And get it home” the Comedian agreed, “if everyone on the ground gets eaten. Alright then, Laurie, Inky, you two’ll be going up and swapping over with Danny.”  
“I am not going to be responsible for Archie with eleven children onboard!” Laurie folded her arms. Rorschach mirrored the gesture saying, “Would prefer to stay down here, Comedian.”  
“Rorschach, you can’t walk!” Laurie put in. “You’re going to have to go!”  
“Daniel can bring me down a hover bike. Probably more efficient at distracting dinosaurs than on foot.”  
“What if you fall off?” Adrian interrupted, “You can’t possibly expect to fight a gigantic dinosaur with a broken limb!” He sighed, and then added, “I might have a way of doing this.” He pointed to everyone in turn, counting. “I’m one, Laurie’s two, Rorschach’s three and Eddie, you’re four. Now” he adjusted his radio and spoke into it, “Dan?”  
“Right here” Dan’s voice replied. “Are you guys alright in there?”  
“We’re all in one piece. This will sound strange but could you pick two numbers for me? Anything from one to four?”  
“Uh...one and three?”  
“Both odd numbers. Interesting.”  
“Please tell me you guys aren’t playing number games down there?”  
“No, you’ve simply helped us solve a dilemma.” Adrian explained the situation, and arranged to swap places with Dan at the broken window Laurie, the Comedian and Rorschach had entered by. As soon he put the radio down Rorschach growled, “You knew he would pick odd numbers didn’t you?”  
“I knew he’d pick three: it’s a mythical number and Dan’s into that. Come on – let’s go meet him.”


	13. Chapter 13

Left alone with Laurie the Comedian said, “Nuts to this. I don’t see why golden boy gets airlifted to safety and you have to stay here.”  
“Eddie, I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself. Stop being weird.”  
“I’m just being…I mean there is a goddamn dinosaur out there!” The Comedian waved a hand to the window. Outside, the spined monster bellowed as if to back him up. Laurie shrugged. “Whatever. At least Rorschach won’t get himself eaten and between him and Adrian Archie will stay in the sky.”  
“Uh huh. So I guess just need one of us to guard Dan and one of us to distract crocosaur out there?”  
Laurie shook her head. “No, the intercom’s right in the wall – he won’t need guarding. If anything comes along he can just duck in here. We can both distract that thing.”  
“I was trying to give you a safe job, kid.”  
“I know. That’s why sidestepped it.” Laurie smiled sweetly. The Comedian muttered, “Kid’s a goddamn risk junkie of course. Hey Owly.”

“Hi” Dan came in carrying a tool box. His eyes widened when he saw the dinosaur out the window. “Damn, it looks even bigger from the ground! Where’s the intercom?”  
The Comedian waved a hand in its general direction. “On the wall there. Me and Laurie will distract it while you work your geek magic.”  
Dan scowled. “Mechanics is hardly gee…Never mind. How are you going to distract it?”  
The Comedian shrugged but Laurie answered, “The river. We cause a commotion there and it should go and investigate.”  
“It should?” asked the Comedian.  
“Yeah. When Dan first saw it, it was just a fin sticking out the water, right? The river’s its territory. I say we get some of those boats going.” Laurie stood up. “Come on. Dan, as soon as it heads round the building, you go and fix the intercom, and tell the people in the bunker to open the doors.”  
“Uh, sure. You guys stay safe.”  
“Pfft” the Comedian rolled his eyes and lifted the useless bazooka. “Sure. I’ll just go back in time and tell myself not to be a mask. Should be safe enough then. C’mon, kid.”

Once Laurie and the Comedian were gone, Dan stared out the window at the monster. It was beyond huge and the fan of spines made it look even bigger. It could have eaten the velociraptors, the Utahraptors and whatever had attacked him and Rorschach earlier for breakfast and still had room for a big lunch. Every inch of it was powerful. The muscles in its thighs had to be a big as his entire torso and its arms, strong and tipped by savage claws, made him shudder. 

Suddenly an engine coughed into life on the other side of the building, the noise faint from where Dan was. The dinosaur heard it though. It lifted its long snout into the air, sniffed and then issued a warning bellow. It was answered by another engine, then another and another. Then the splashing of an unpiloted vessel bobbing away from a bank. Dan grinned as the dinosaur made an annoyed sounding snort not unlike Rorschach’s. It lumbered off to the river. 

Dan was caught for a moment between waiting until it was as far away as possible and jumping out the window as soon as he could to get to work. He chose the later.   
The intercom was an easy fix. It had been smashed by something heavy but the damage was mostly external and he had plenty of spare bits of wire in his tool kit. The hard part was not getting too involved in the work to keep an ear out for any approaching creatures. He wasn’t 100% certain that Adrian and Rorschach, watching from the sky, knew how to work Archie’s loudspeaker to warn him if anything was coming (he really needed to suggest another Archie training session) and besides, they were probably watching the river. It certainly sounded like something dramatic was happening there. He hoped Laurie and Eddie were okay. 

Within twenty minutes he had the intercom more or less workable. Sure, it was missing half its buttons and the line was terrible, but it only needed to last for a few moments.   
“Hello?” Dan pressed a gear normally sheathed in a button as he spoke. “Can anyone hear me down there?”  
For a moment there was no response and he was on the verge of assuming he hadn’t fixed the intercom after all when a voice responded, “Hello? This is John Hammond.”  
Dan grinned, “Hi Mr Hammond, this is Nite Owl. We’ve got the children safely onboard the owlship and I need you to open the bunker door for boarding.”  
There was a relieved exhale from the other man but whatever Hammond said was lost in static. It didn’t matter: the bunker began to open.

The doors opened slowly, with much grinning of metal and creaking of hinges until slabs of concrete reinforced lead shifted and slid to reveal a tall metal ladder. Dan waved when three people appeared below him, just visible all that way down. As they started to climb, Dan radioed Adrian and Rorschach with very specific instructions as to how to draw Archie in a little closer and lower the rope ladder without tilting the ship forwards and tipping the passengers out. 

Once Archie was safely hovering with the rope ladder skimming the ground, all Dan could do was wait. He kept glancing back in the direction of the river. Roars and metallic crunching told him the dinosaur was still occupied. He was still worried about Laurie and the Comedian. 

The three people who finally emerged from the bunker were shaken but calm. Two, a man and a woman in lab coats were followed by Hammond. Each managed a hoarse “Thank you” as Dan helped them from the bunker door to the rope ladder. He didn’t relax until he had followed them, struggling up the ladder and pulling himself onboard.

Archie was by now pretty crowded. The children were sitting and standing at the back of the ship, most of them still petting Bubastis, who looked incredibly smug at all the attention. Her purring was disconcertingly loud in the enclosed metal space. The adults were all near the front of the ship. Adrian was making coffee for the scientists and had sat them down on some foldout chairs. He was deep in conversation with Hammond, confirming that there were no more civilians on the ground while apparently digging for information about how the dinosaurs had been made. Rorschach was sitting in the passenger seat making no move to interact with anyone. He greeted Dan with the words, “The Comedian and Silk Spectre are still on the ground. We saw them reach cover before you radioed us.”   
Dan nodded and reached for his radio again. “Let’s get them back here so we can all go home.”

Meanwhile on the river, three pleasure boats drove in crazy circles across the water while a fourth, a classy looking speed boat, splintered under the gigantic claws of the spine-monster. Ten feet away, Laurie and the Comedian hid behind a wall that flanked the stone steps up to the reception building. The Comedian was still half heartedly trying to fix the bazooka, prompting Laurie to roll her eyes. “Eddie, why’d you even bring that thing?”  
“Trust me sweetheart, you’ll thank me if I get it working…shit!” They both jumped when Dan’s voice spoke from the radio. “Hello? Guys are you okay?”  
Luckily, the dinosaur couldn’t hear Dan over the sound of the boats breaking up. Laurie lifted the radio. “Dan? Is everyone safe?”  
“Yeah, we’re all aboard Archie. Where are you guys? Could we reach you?”  
“I don’t think so: we’re still pretty close to the river.”  
“Uh huh. Could you get to the other side of the reception building? Then I could lower Archie without risking anyone else onboard.”

“Should be easy enough. See you, Dan” Laurie put the radio down and smiled at the Comedian who was clutching the bazooka like a stuffed toy. At a particularly loud crunch from the river he jerked his head up as if to look over the end ledge but decided at the last moment that that was a dumb idea. As he sat back Laurie handed him something. A disc. He turned it over, puzzled. “What the hell is this?”  
She rolled her eyes and reached over to click it open. “It’s a compact mirror, Eddie. Would you believe my mom had one built into my costume?”  
“Huh. You could’ve had a lighter otherwise.” The Comedian raised the mirror above the height of the wall to look at the creature in the river. It was still occupied with the boats, crumbling them into pieces, but it was also still monstrously huge. “Fuck. I sure as hell don’t want to make a run for it.”  
Laurie shrugged. “Have you got any better ideas how we’re going to get back to Dan? Because I don’t plan on sitting here until it comes over and eats us.”  
The Comedian shook his head. “If I could smoke I’d say lets sit here and wait. What the fuck are they all doing up there anyway? Playing charades? Why don’t they just swoop down and pick us up?”  
“Because they’ve got a ship load of children and a busted windscreen! We don’t want them trying to flying anywhere near that thing!”  
“Well then where the fuck’s your boyfriend kid? I thought the blue bastard could be in two places at once?”  
“Up to twenty as far as I know” That was the highest number of Jons Laurie had ever counted. It had been after she’d returned from a solo patrol and it had been freaking weird. Once had been washing up without need of any water or even a sink, two had been playing chess, fifteen had been doing science stuff, one had been lazing around and one had been waiting for her. Really though, she doubted twenty was the limit. She thought it was possible for everyone on earth who wanted one to have a Jon. He could date millions of people at once. But he only wanted her. She smiled.   
The Comedian interrupted her thoughts. “So why doesn’t he leave one of himself with us when he goes off on these missions?”  
Damn the man! Why did he have to point out the one thing that had been eating away at her? “I don’t know, Eddie, maybe he just needs some time away from you.”  
“I’m just saying –”   
“Well don’t”  
“– you could do better, kid.”  
“What the hell?” Laurie demanded. “How could anyone do better than Jon? And, Eddie, you’ve got no right to –”  
“Alright, alright! I’m just worried about you, so sue me! Look how about you run and I’ll distract it?”  
Laurie shook her head. “Bad idea. It’ll kill you in a second and follow me round to Dan. If we both run it probably won’t notice us.”  
“I can last more than a second kid. Go on.”  
“Why should I?”  
“Because you’re younger than me. A lot of fun still to be had.”  
“I don’t get you! A moment ago you wanted Dan to fly over here and put eleven kids in that thing’s line of fire and now you want to sacrifice yourself because I’m young?”  
“Just go, Laurie.”  
“No way. And what is with you? You’ve been weird ever since the ship crashed.”  
The Comedian sighed. “Fine. Look kid, there’s something you should know.”  
Laurie frowned and waited but the Comedian just stared at her for a moment. Finally she blurted out, “What?”  
“Is it me” the Comedian began, “or has it gone quiet?”  
Then Laurie heard it to. The sound of no boats being torn apart. Slowly, she looked up.  
The dinosaur looked back at her from over the wall.


	14. Chapter 14

For the second time that day, all Laurie could manage was “Fuck! Run!” She and the Comedian bolted from the shelter of the wall. The dinosaur didn’t bother stepping over the wall. The sound of stone smashing to bricks followed as they tore past the locked building. The massive creature quickly caught up, lowering its neck to snap at them as they fled. Laurie’s bare feet skimmed over concrete and grass as she ran, looking for any cover, any small space that this brute wouldn’t be able to follow her into. Beside her there was a crash: the Comedian had stumbled. “Shit, Eddie!” Laurie hauled him up by one huge bicep, the pair of them scrambling away from the oncoming jaws. Then the Comedian yelled, “Down!” 

Laurie stared around, still running. Was there somewhere to hide she hadn’t seen? Then she registered the owlship shadowing the pursuing dinosaur from way up in the air, the dangling rope ladder and Rorschach clinging to it, aiming the grappling gun. She dived to the ground as the grappling gun’s vicious hooks shot past, almost hitting her head. The Comedian’s big hand was on her skull a second later, shielding it. 

The hooks hit one of the reception building windows with a crunch of glass.   
The dinosaur noticed the owlship at last and swivelled, its tail whacking into the building, shaking cubes of glass loose from the freshly smashed cracks. When the dinosaur couldn’t reach the owlship it issued a long, low, howl, lifting its snout to keen into the air. Huddled on the ground, Laurie realised that between the failed attempt at eating them and the boats and now this, the dinosaur had to be having a really bad day. 

“C’mon, kid” the Comedian pulled her upright and they ran to the smashed window. A few blows from the Comedian’s great fist and the glass caved in. The Comedian pushed Laurie into the safety of the building and clambered in after her. As soon as she was in, Laurie sank to the floor and picked the grit from her feet. “Hell. Those T-rex boots can’t come too soon.”  
The Comedian shuffled away from the window, glancing at her and then back at the dinosaur outside. “Heh. Well that’s – oh!” He shifted the bazooka from his shoulder, and shook it experimentally, a grin spreading over his face. “Hey that sounds better! That fall must have knocked something back into place.”  
Laurie rolled her eyes. “Great. I’m happy for you. Now can we…” She trailed off as the Comedian aimed his newly restored weapon out the broken window. He caught her eye and chuckled. “I told you you’d thank me, didn’t I?”  
“Eddie what are you doing?”  
Beyond the busted window, the dinosaur was still looking at the sky. Archie had risen well out of snacking range and Rorschach was pulling himself on board, his bad leg trailing.   
He Comedian made a dismissive noise. “What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m putting that monster out there to sleep!”  
“It’s not even looking our way” Laurie argued. “Come on, let’s go”   
But the Comedian stayed stubbornly where he was. “Kid, that thing tried to have us for lunch! I’ll shoot it and then we’ll go.”  
“No!” Laurie slipped into the window frame, blocking his view. 

The Comedian stared at her. He could easily shoot over her shoulder but not without the rebound giving her a nasty bruise. He frowned and lowered the bazooka. “Laurie, what the hell are you doing?”  
She shrugged. “You’re not shooting it. There’s no need to.”   
“You think the army aren’t going to napalm this place by the time I’ve had a word?”  
“I don’t know what the army’s going to do. But we’re not killing any of these animals if it’s not self defence.” She felt stupid saying it considering how many dinosaurs she’d shot over the course of the day (probably more than anyone else had) but that was different. They had actually been a threat. Whatever the gigantic creature out there was, it wasn’t trying to hurt them right now. And it was a pretty incredible animal, even if it was freaking dangerous as well. 

The Comedian was still staring at her like he simply couldn’t comprehend what she was doing. Luckily she didn’t need to explain because suddenly there was a swooping sound as Archie passed over the building, followed by a frustrated snarl from the dinosaur outside. It left the bazooka’s range, shambling off to the river. Laurie expected there to be a loud splash as it entered the water but heard only a few ripples.   
“Guys?” Dan’s voice sounded on the Comedian’s radio. He was still standing there with the bazooka sticking out the window and had to put it down to answer. “Yeah, Owly?”  
“Are you both okay? The dinosaur’s swimming away now. Can you meet us round the back of the building?”  
Laurie answered with her own radio. “Sure thing, we’ll see you in a minute.”


	15. Chapter 15

“What the hell were you thinking?” Laurie jabbed a finger at Hammond, “I mean, a T-rex! Not to mention whatever the hell that thing down there is!”  
“It’s a Spinosaurus”  
“It’s a monstrosity! Why the hell would you bring it back? The plant eaters I can understand but that thing?”  
Laurie and the Comedian had boarded Archie a few minutes earlier and Laurie had wasted no time in making her feelings felt to the park’s founder. She finished her rant with, “And opening it to the public! Did you want people to get eaten?”  
“Of course not!” Hammond looked outraged at the suggestion. “My own grandchildren were here last week! I just wanted people to enjoy these animals! To learn about them!” He waved a hand in the direction of the gaping window. They had risen high enough now to see across the forest. In the sky, enormous beasts with bat-like wings circled. Dan kept the ship at a careful distance from them.   
Adrian shifted beside the scientists. “Education is a worthy aim” he said, “but surely you can see now that opening this place to the public is just too dangerous?”  
Hammond sighed but nodded. “Yes. Yes I see now that public access at this stage isn’t in the public interest. Or in the interest of the animals for that matter.”   
Laurie didn’t know how he’d worked that one out (the Spinosaurus hadn’t seemed particularly vulnerable) but she relented. As she stalked away Adrian started up a conversation about genetics with the scientists. Bubastis was still entertaining the children (one little girl had started to braid her shaggy fur) and a few of them had opened lunchboxes or were standing on tiptoes to admire the sight of the dinosaurs from the window. All the clamour of seventeen people crammed into a too-hot ship was being overridden by the Comedian’s increasingly angry exchange with some top military guy he’d radioed as soon as he boarded.   
As Laurie sat down next to him he switched the radio off, swearing. Catching sight of her questioning expression he explained, “They’re not going to napalm the place; they say just quarantining the island is enough! So spinosaur gets off scot free.”  
Laurie smiled. “Glad to hear it.”  
The Comedian scowled. “Don’t tell me you like the damn things! Between Inky, Owly, the doc and Mr Education Is A Worthy Aim over there I’m surrounded by geeks already.”  
Laurie laughed. “I’m just happy we managed to save everyone without destroying the place. We’re better than that. And they were kinda cool anyway. You’ve got to admit that.”  
“I’m admitting nothing kid.”  
“Whatever. Hey, what were you going to tell me earlier?”  
“What?”  
“You said I need to know something.”  
“Oh!” The Comedian actually blushed. “Err. Hum. Look, kid, give me a break, could ya? I need to speak to Owl about something important.”  
He hurried off, leaving Laurie wondering.  
……   
It wasn’t long before they were flying well above the level of the treetops, and Dan was glad to leave the dangerous airborne creatures behind.   
Not that it felt like all the dinosaurs were gone with the Comedian standing over him. For what felt like the hundredth time he reiterated, “Comedian, I am not turning the flamethrowers on so you can light a cigar.”   
“Aw c’mon! I saved your skin with those veloraptor things.”  
Dan could see that Rorschach wanted to say “velociraptors” but wasn’t prepared to correct the Comedian. He shook his head. “Sorry, but Archie costs money to run. I’m not burning through fuel just for the sake of your bad habits.”  
“Oh come on! I haven’t had a smoke all day! Inky, tell your boyfriend to stop being such a sadistic tight ass!”   
Rorschach made a disgruntled noise and hunched in the passenger seat, obviously not appreciating having insinuations made in front of civilians. Dan added, “Look, aside from anything else it’s a fire hazard with the windows smashed in like this.”  
“Didn’t stop you roasting those dinoraptors earlier.”  
“That was a necessary risk!”  
“So’s this!”  
“Can’t you just wait? We’ll be home soon. You shouldn’t be smoking in front of children anyway!”  
The Comedian stared at him for a moment before leaning over the pilot chair and reaching for the control panel. “Fine, I’ll do it myself! Hey what’s this button that looks like a dildo?”  
“Stop playing with the rocket launcher!” Dan shifted until his shoulder blocked the Comedian’s access to the controls. “I’m not having us crash again – or catch fire – after everything we’ve been through today!”  
“Whatever you useless freak! Just get us home. It’s gonna take a lot of strip clubs to wash this day away!” The Comedian backed off, muttering, and finally sat down at the back of the ship.   
Rorschach checked he was out of earshot before murmuring, “Don’t mind him, Daniel. Nicotine withdrawal.”  
“Yeah, don’t worry, I wasn’t about to loose any sleep over it.” Dan glanced at his partner. “How’s your ankle?”  
“Fine”  
“Fine fine or broken fine?”  
“Not important fine”  
“Uh huh. That stunt with the rope ladder probably didn’t do it any favors.”  
“Another necessary risk, Daniel. Don’t worry about me.”  
“Sure. Well I’ll take a look at it when we’re home.”   
Rorschach huffed a little and fished a sandwich out of his pocket and tucked in. Dan didn’t want to think about where it might have come from.   
He piloted Archie across the treetops and over the grassy expanse they had first crash-landed by. Rorschach set his sandwich aside and sat forward in the chair at the sight of the numerous dinosaurs wandering below.   
Dan smiled. “Hey, I was thinking. How about we go to a museum sometime?”   
Rorschach seemed to give this some thought. “Hm” he said at last. “I would prefer to come back here.”


End file.
